


Visions Of Heroes

by chaosgroupie



Category: Actor RPF, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Cinematic Universe RPF, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:28:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 61,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26942917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaosgroupie/pseuds/chaosgroupie
Summary: Stephanie is the granddaughter of Stan Lee who created most of the big names in the Marvel world. But there's a hidden secret as to how he came up with the idea for those superheroes. On the night of Stephanie's thirteenth birthday, she finds out the truth.----------This poem helped inspire the direction this story took:You were you, and I was I;we were two before our time.I was yours before I knew,and you have always been mine too.―Lang Leav----------NOTE: This is an AU with regards to both our universe and the MCU universe. It will diverge from canon.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 69
Kudos: 45





	1. First Time

1999 

It was Stephanie's thirteenth birthday, a day that should be full of laughter and happiness, but every time she cast a surreptitious glance at her grandfather he had a concerned expression on his face. It would disappear when he realized she looked his way, but most of the time he was talking with her mother and didn’t notice. It helped that she was reading the signed Captain America omnibus he’d brought her for a gift, allowing her to look at him over the top of the book.

Having a famous comic creator as a grandfather had some advantages, namely getting autographed copies of first editions. Even before her mother allowed her to read them he would tell her fascinating stories of another world where heroes existed and fought space creatures. It wasn’t a typical childhood, but she loved it. As for Captain America, even though they didn’t consider her grandfather the creator he had inspired the stories. He wouldn’t tell her how, just that she’d find out eventually.

When she opened the book, directly under the name of the writer and illustrator was the tribute to her grandfather - _Inspired by Stan Lee._ Every time she saw those words it brought a smile to her face. So many comic creators included something like this on the title page, giving him credit for the idea without outright saying it was his creation. Her mother had told her long ago that he didn’t care about getting accolades, that the only thing he truly cared about was that the writers kept the integrity of the storyline he set out for them. As much as he would have loved to write all of their stories, there just weren’t enough hours in the day. 

Every once in awhile, he would get angry at someone for screwing up a story. If they messed up bad enough, they would never be allowed to write that character or anything that could be related to them. It drew criticism for denying them the creative freedom to design something new, but the ones that stuck around longer than a single issue knew that wasn’t truly the case. Stan had the overall story arcs of the characters that he wanted the writers to follow for the main plot, but for everything else, he gave them leeway.

There were only seven heroes that he cared about how their stories were written - Captain America, Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, and Hawkeye. Every time Stephanie asked he refused to tell her why he only cared about them while letting the creators do whatever they wanted with the others. Not that she would ever complain about his heavy-handedness over those storylines. Captain America and Winter Soldier were her favorites, at least the adult version of Bucky Barnes. A writer once did an offshoot with Bucky as a teenager that hadn’t felt genuine, but it wasn’t part of the main story arc so Stan had let it slide.

Getting about halfway through the omnibus, Stephanie felt a kiss pressed to the top of her head and glanced up, seeing her mother standing above her. “Sweetheart, Grandpa has to leave. Go say goodnight.” As she looked around, her mother held out a bookmark, knowing that she hated desecrating the books Stan gave her by folding down the pages. Every single one of them was well-loved, and maybe the spines didn’t look pristine anymore, but the insides were crease-free. It was a point of pride that she kept every item her grandfather gave her in as close to pristine condition as possible.

Setting the book down on the couch, she walked over to him, sitting down and leaning against him as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Stevie, did you have a good birthday?”

“Yes, Grandpa.” She looked up at him with a massive smile on her face. “I love the book.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I know how much you love your Captain America.”

“And Bucky,” she asserted.

“And Bucky.” Shaking his head, her grandfather faked a huge sigh. “Who would have known that my only granddaughter would be more enamored with a villain than a…”

Pulling back, she frowned at him. “Grandpa, you know as well as I do that Bucky is not a villain. He’s a victim of circumstance. If it weren’t for HYDRA capturing him and wiping his mind, he would…”

“Hush,” he said, laughter bubbling through the word. “I just like to see you get all riled up.” His face turned serious. “Now, listen to me, Stevie. You might… there is a chance that you will... “ Groaning, he took off his glasses and swiped a hand down his face. As he put the glasses back on, he sighed, “If you dream tonight, let me know. It’s not… I don’t want to… Don’t worry if you do, just tell me if it seems weird.”

“Okay, Grandpa,” she replied, trying to appease him. The only reason Stephanie didn’t roll her eyes was that he seemed genuinely upset. Leaning over, she pulled him into a tight hug. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Stevie.” He stood and went into the kitchen, talking to her mother. While they tried to keep their voices quiet, she could still hear them. “JC, will you tell me if she dreams? I’m worried that…”

“Dad, you know I love you, but you pulled this same shit with me.” Her mother let out a heavy sigh. “I love you, but the last thing Stephanie needs is to be worried because you think you…”

“Joan Celia Lee,” my grandfather barked out. It was strange to hear him raise his voice. It took more than a slight irritation to make him lose control of his temper. “You don’t need to believe me for it to be true.” His tone softened, “If she wakes up screaming, call me.”

“Fine.”

Not wanting to overhear any more of their conversation, she grabbed the book and headed to her bedroom to get ready for bed. After changing and reading for a little bit longer, she turned off the light and pulled the blanket over her head, trying to fall asleep.

\--------------------

_The room was cold and dark, the only light coming from a dim lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. A man lay on a metal table, hands and legs strapped down. The look on his face said everything. His eyes were defiant, as was the set of his mouth._

_A short man wearing glasses came into the room, pushing a cart with vials of blue liquid and a large needle on it. The man’s expression filled with fear but quickly reversed to one of steely determination. “Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, 32557038.”_

_“Herr Barnes, do we need to go through this again?” The man chuckled, German accent thickening as he commented, “You may repeat your name and serial number as often as you’d like, however, it will do you no good.”_

_Rolling Bucky’s sleeve up, he inserted the needle into the first vial and sucked out the liquid. As the man inserted the tip into Bucky’s arm, pressing down on the plunger, Bucky abandoned his desire to keep quiet and hissed, “Zola, you can go straight to hell.”_

_Zola pulled the needle out of his arm, inserting it into the second vial. “Ahh, Herr Barnes, I’m glad to see you’ve decided to be more vocal. That ability will not last, you should take this time to say whatever it is you wish.”_

_But during the next two injections, Bucky kept his teeth gritted, refusing to say another word. Zola didn’t care, he just finished injecting the liquid into him and pushed the cart back out of the room. When he came back a couple of minutes later, he had four armed men with him. Two of them took Bucky off the table, holding him by the arms while they dragged him out. The other two walked behind him, fingers on the trigger in case he made any sudden moves._

_He didn’t resist. They outnumbered and outpowered him, so trying to get away and escape would be futile. When they dragged him into a room with a large chair in the middle placing him in it, he started reciting his name and serial number again. It wasn’t for Zola or any of the other men, but to keep himself strong even through whatever they were going to do to him._

_The guards strapped his hands down and Zola stepped in front of him. “Herr Barnes, you won’t remember any of this. But still, I will enjoy your screams.” Strapping Bucky’s head to the chair, he pulled the helmet down and grabbed a black mouthguard. “Bite down on this.”_

_Bucky did as he asked, knowing that whatever was coming must be awful. Through it all, he didn’t let Zola win, glaring at him with hate in his eyes. As Zola threw a lever, Bucky’s eyes rolled back in his head, back arching off the chair as he screamed around the mouthguard. Tears ran down his cheeks, the screams turning hoarse as electricity hummed in the air._

_When Zola released the switch and unbuckled Bucky from the chair, he just sat there, eyes unfocused. He started muttering, over and over again, “Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, 32557038.” They carried him out of the room, back to the metal table, and strapped him down again._

_As Bucky muttered, Zola walked up next to him, surveying his handiwork. There was a cut on his left cheek from the helmet, blood dripping out of his ears. But Zola smiled and patted Bucky’s cheek like he would a child. “Herr Barnes, I do so look forward to continuing this with you, but I’ll give you a brief respite for the night. Wouldn’t want you to die before we can complete the experiment.”_

_After Zola left, Bucky kept muttering the same phrase over and over again, not realizing where he was. Time passed slowly, the blood dripping down his ear drying, but the vacant glazed expression never left his eyes. After an indeterminate amount of time, another person entered the room, this time it wasn’t a German. Whoever this person was, he very obviously was trying to hide his presence on the base._

_Running up to Bucky, he groaned when he saw how bad he was. As he ripped the straps off the bed, he said softly, “Buck, I’m here to get you out.”_

_Bucky looked up at the man, stopping his repetitive muttering. “Stevie?” He sounded so lost and confused, almost as if he couldn’t believe it._

_“Yeah, Buck, it’s me.” Steve helped his friend sit up, placing one of Bucky’s arms over his shoulders so he could help him stand. “Come on, let’s get you outta here.”_

_As Bucky stumbled off the bed, falling off of Steve’s shoulders, he placed his hands on the metal bed and looked Steve up and down, widening. “You got big. What the hell happened?”_

_Steve placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling down at his slightly shorter friend. “Joined the army.” But the smile quickly disappeared, “We gotta get outta here, Buck.” Slipping an arm around his friend’s waist, he half-carried him out of the room and down the hallway._

_After walking for a minute, Bucky stopped. “I got this, Stevie.” Steve looked uncertain, but let Bucky stand on his own, hands out just in case. He wavered for a minute but nodded. “Let’s go.” As they continued down the hallway, Bucky couldn’t keep his eyes off of his large friend. “Did it hurt?”_

_“Did what hurt?” Steve’s eyes darted from side-to-side at a junction before they went to the right._

_“When they… you know… made you big?”_

_“Let’s not talk about that right now.” The haunted look in Steve’s eyes said more than words ever could. He was looking away from Bucky, so his friend didn’t see the pain brought on by the memory. “The others are waiting for us.”_

\--------------------

Waking, Stephanie rubbed her eyes, trying to figure out what had caused the dream. It wasn’t a nightmare, per se, but tears still rolled down her cheeks. The only explanation that made any sense was the combination of reading about Captain America and her grandfather’s warning. Thankfully, she hadn’t screamed. The last thing she needed or wanted was to have her mother come rushing into her bedroom.

For so many years, she’d heard about Steve and Bucky’s stories. Before she was ever allowed to read comics, she knew about them; how they grew up together in Brooklyn, Steve a sickly kid, Bucky always looking out for him. In 1941, Bucky was drafted by the Army, with Steve following close behind him, lying to get in. The comics showed Steve’s transformation into Captain America, how painful it had been. They even showed him rescuing Bucky from HYDRA, but the dialogue had been different. The one thing that had never been written about, only hinted at, was what happened to Bucky before that rescue.

Laying an arm over her eyes, she tried to calm her racing heart so she could fall back asleep. It was just a dream, that’s all. Too many years hearing and reading about them made it so they were all she ever thought about. She’d imagined their stories, imagined what happened around the tidbits she knew. That’s all it was, her imagination running wild.

\--------------------

_Standing on a fast-moving train, Bucky held up his gun, looking around. It was quiet, too quiet. Looking back at the closed door, he saw Steve standing on the other side, shield in hand as he fought a robot. Fucking robots. When a noise came from behind a box, he turned to the sound, moving softly toward it._

_A door opened, and several soldiers came in firing at him. Bucky fired back, killing several before running out of ammo. Tossing the gun to the side, he tussled with the last soldier, throwing punches and ducking under swings thrown his way. Staying close to the other soldier, Bucky was able to keep him from grabbing his pistol and shooting._

_Hearing a shot, Bucky looked down in surprise as the soldier sunk to the ground. Looking back, he saw Steve standing in the open door, a cocky grin on his face. Groaning, Bucky said sarcastically, “Saving the day, Stevie? I had ‘im.”_

_“Yeah, I know, Buck.” Steve gave him a huge smile, handing him the butt of the gun. From behind him, the sound of electricity had him turning, bringing up the shield just in time to stop a blast from the robot. The laser blast bounced off the vibranium and knocked a hole in the train._

_Steve flew back, crumpling against one of the walls, shield dropping from his hand. Bucky picked it up, firing at the robot with the gun. Shot after shot pinged off the metal body, but the robot kept coming. Another blast came at him, hitting the shield and knocking Bucky outside of the hole._

_Scrambling, Steve picked up the shield and threw it as hard as he could at the robot, knocking off its head. Then he rushed over to the hole, sighing in relief when he saw Bucky hanging onto a piece still attached to the train. “Hold on, Bucky!!” he yelled, moving carefully as far out as he dared. Leaning over, he held out his arm. “Grab my hand.”_

_“Steve,” Bucky sounded exhausted. “I don’t think…”_

_“Fuck that, Bucky.” He stretched further, extending his arm slightly further. “You try, Buck. You fucking try. Don’t give up on me. Now, fucking… grab… my… hand.”_

_When Bucky reached out to him, the rail he was holding onto made a horrible creaking noise and he grasped it again with both hands. Taking several deep breaths, he gathered his courage and let go with his right hand. The railing creaked again, bending downward, so he swung trying to catch Steve’s hand. As he did, it broke when he was only inches from rescue, sending his body careening down into the snowy ravine several hundred feet below._

_Mouth agape, Steve stared as Bucky’s body fell until he couldn’t see him anymore. A tear rolled down his cheek, then another, and another. Hefting himself back into the train, he collapsed against the wall, pressing his hands to his face as he sobbed._

\--------------------

This time when she woke with tears streaming down her cheeks she gave up all pretense of trying to sleep. Bucky’s death had been written about and illustrated, she’d read it many times over. Each time she cried. She loved all of the Avengers, not just Steve and Bucky, but every one of them. Growing up, hearing about their stories, their lives, she felt as if she knew them. But seeing them in her dreams was something completely different.

Rolling over, she looked at her alarm clock and saw that it was almost six, so she got out of bed and headed toward the kitchen. Stan was always up early, having gotten up before the sun for years, so she wanted to call and talk to him about the dreams. With this being the first time she’d had a dream so vivid about Steve and Bucky, not to mention his warning, she wanted to know what in the hell was going on.

As she walked down the hallway, she cracked open her mother’s door, breathing out a sigh of relief when she saw that Joan was still sound asleep. In the kitchen, she picked up the house phone and dialed her grandfather. He answered, sounding chipper, “Hello?”

“Hey, Grandpa.”

“Stevie, why are you up so early?”

When he called her by the nickname he’d given her as a small child, it reminded Stephanie of the dream. “Grandpa, why do you call me Stevie?”

“Umm,” he hesitated. “First, answer my question, then I’ll answer yours.”

Sighing, she rubbed her aching eyes, getting mildly annoyed with him. “I dreamed last night… about Bucky… and Steve.”

“Oh, poor child.” Stan let out a heavy sigh. “I really hoped it would skip you like it did your mother. What did you dream about?”

“Bucky being injected with the serum, his memory wiped. Bucky falling out of the train and into the ravine.” Taking a deep breath, she tried to remain rational, to use logic to understand where the dreams had come from. Seeing them on the train could just be an extrapolation from the stories she’d read and heard about. But Bucky being injected prior to his rescue, that never made it into the comics, nor the stories her grandfather had told. “Grandpa, why did you tell me that I needed to let you know if I dreamed? And why do you call me Stevie?”

“Damn, I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you.” She heard a chair being pulled out, wooden legs screeching on the tile floor of his kitchen. “When I turned thirteen, I started having dreams, nightmares, much like yours. The first one was of Steve being injected with the serum and placed into the sarcophagus that made him larger. It terrified me. Every single day for the next month, I had nightmares about that time. But they seemed different, fuzzier somehow.” He paused and she could picture him rubbing his eyes underneath his glasses. “Try to remember, I turned thirteen in 1935 and Steve was part of Project Rebirth in 1943. After the first month, the dreams trailed off, but I still had some. In 1943, they came back full force, the dreams about Steve in the sarcophagus seeming clearer and more painful. I’ve dreamed about their stories my whole life, that’s why I created the Marvel universe, to tell their stories.”

“I don’t understand.”

He sighed. “I don’t know how else to explain it to you, Stevie. I’ve had sixty-six years to think about this. From what I figure, I’m somehow connected to an alternate universe where I see visions of the past, present, and future. Visions of the past are the same every single time, without fail. They’ve already happened, so there is no reason for them to change. Visions of the future are in flux, so they seem fuzzy, at least until our time passes theirs. You remember how Captain America will be found in 2011, frozen under the ice?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve seen about twenty different ways that will happen. But once we get to 2011, we’ll see which of those futures was the correct one.”

“Grandpa,” she tried to keep her voice even, not wanting to berate an old man for his eccentricities. “You know how crazy this sounds, right?”

“Stevie, you had the dreams, you tell me. Did Steve and Bucky in your dream look anything like the comics?”

Thinking back to the dream, she admitted, “No, they don’t. They look completely different.”

“Exactly.” He sounded almost sad. “I’m sorry that you got stuck with these.”

“Is that why you call me Stevie because Bucky calls Steve that?”

Stan cleared his throat, then chuckled in embarrassment. “Yeah, that’s why. I had nothing to do with your mother’s decision to call you Stephanie, but when you were a little girl and couldn’t pronounce your own name, I just… I’d had a horrible vision the night before in which Bucky had said Stevie, and when I called you that the smile on your face was instantaneous. Plus, it was easier for you to pronounce. Your mother hates it.”

“I know.” She laughed with him, but then turned serious. “Grandpa, are these really visions? How do you know they’re visions of an alternate universe and not just hallucinations or dreams?”

“Stevie, I can’t tell you how I know for certain that they’re visions, at least not until you’re older. Just believe me for now, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And start writing down whatever happens in these visions. It will help keep everything straight, and if you dream of the future, then when the time passes and you see the vision again, you’ll know which one was real. Plus, that will teach you how to separate out the future visions that are real and which ones are not.”

“Alright, Grandpa.” Stephanie's mother came into the kitchen and she gave her a big smile, not wanting her to know about the dreams. “I love you. Thank you for the book.”

“Your mother just came in, didn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s just keep this between the two of us for now. She doesn’t believe me about the visions, and telling her would cause her nothing but worry.” Before she could say goodbye, he added, “And Stevie, I love you 3000.”


	2. Is This Real?

2001 

“Night, Mom. Love you,” Stephanie called as she went back to her bedroom.

“Night, sweetheart. I love you too,” Joan echoed back to her.

When Stephanie got into her room, she picked up her notebook that had been filled with the visions she’d had of Bucky and Steve, flipping through them. There were notes written hastily, stories printed out in exacting detail, and quick sketches of their faces. Reaching out, she ran her fingers over one of the sketches of Bucky. Even at fourteen, she knew he was handsome. There wasn’t a physical attraction, just an admiration for his blue eyes and the smile that he had in the visions of good times.

Unlike her grandfather, most of the visions she had were of the boys before the war. Before Bucky got drafted and before Steve was turned into Captain America. Them as children, throwing a baseball back and forth, sneaking into movie theaters to see the latest film, lots of adorable interactions that had helped her fill an entire notebook with happy memories. She had managed to have a dream-vision of the entirety of _The Wizard of Oz_ in its original black and white. The only good part about that had been seeing the boys watch it with undisguised awe in their eyes.

Every once in a while, she would have visions of the war - Bucky fighting before being captured by HYDRA, Steve doing his bond shows, the rescue, Bucky falling off the train… The last was the worst. She had that one more times than she cared to remember. Each time, she stayed under a little longer, seeing Steve broken and weeping in the train car. Each time, she woke up with tears streaming down her face, sobbing into her pillow to try and not wake her mother up. If it weren’t for the fact that she knew Bucky made it out alive she wouldn’t have been able to handle seeing that vision more than once.

Of course, she never told her grandfather any of this, not wanting him to worry about her. During one of their conversations, he had told her how he'd seen Captain America crashing the plane into the Arctic multiple times, that as a teenager seeing that upset him. He had warned her that she was likely to have visions of the same moment in time, over and over and over. But even with the warning, it still upset her every time.

Shutting her notebook, she set it on the nightstand and turned off her light. As she laid in bed, she tried to concentrate on thoughts of Bucky. It had been months since the last vision, so she was going to try to bring one on. The last thing she wanted to do was tell her grandfather that she wanted to have these visions, and even though she had no idea if it would work, she was still going to try.

\--------------------

_The room was cold and sterile with metal walls and tables loaded with medical instruments of all kinds. In the center of the room sat a chair with straps on the arms meant to hold somebody in place, as well as a strap near that where the head would be. Above the strap was a helmet with electrodes sticking out of it and a wire that connected it to a machine a few feet away._

_Looking around, Stephanie noticed a large metal container with a glass window about head height. As she walked over, she startled, realizing that she was in her vision. Stopping in the middle of the room, she looked down at her hands and she noticed they were almost transparent. Instead of dwelling on the reasons why she was in the vision, she continued walking over to the container._

_Once close enough, she had to stand on her toes to peer into the window. That's when she saw him. Bucky was inside, eyes closed, hair shaggy and unkempt. But it wasn't really Bucky, she knew that. In the comics, there were only ever two people to have put him into cryostasis - HYDRA and Shuri. Based on the antiquated setup of the lab, this was not Shuri's doing. Which meant that the man inside of the container was the Winter Soldier._

_Stephanie heard footsteps behind her and turned toward the sound. A well-dressed man came in with a guy in a lab coat and four soldiers holding automatic rifles. When they didn't even glance her way, she let out a relieved breath knowing they couldn't see her. That meant that even though somehow she had projected herself into her vision, she wasn't actually there._

_Not that she could have been there, because her visions had only ever been of the past or the future, but still, it was good to know that her somehow being a part of the vision didn’t include HYDRA noticing her. Moving off to the side as they approached, she watched, curious as to what they were about to do. The well-dressed man laid a hand on the glass, wiping away any condensation that had collected, and smiled as he looked inside. Then he moved out of the way, and the scientist went over to a panel she hadn't noticed, pressing a few buttons._

_The well-dressed man spoke, “How long has it been since his last extraction?”_

_Sighing, the scientist looked down at his clipboard. “1991, sir. When we brought him out to kill…” He looked back down at the paper, running his finger down it until he found the names. “Howard Stark and his wife.”_

_“Ten years! And no one has wanted to use him since then?” Surprise was evident in his voice, and Stephanie looked a little closer at him. He looked sort of familiar. Even though the people in her visions looked almost nothing like the ones in the comics, the evil glint in this man's eyes had his name on the edge of her thoughts. But it didn’t come to her. “I find that hard to believe, doctor.”_

_“Mr. Pierce,” the doctor sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his finger. When Stephanie heard his name, she wanted to go up and punch him in the face. Alexander Pierce was one of the worst villains in the comics. Most of the villains would freely admit they were the bad guys, but he worked for SHIELD who was supposed to be doing good in the world. Instead, he corrupted it from the inside, turning the organization evil. “The Soldier is unpredictable at times. After the last operation, he started having flashes of memories. Since that op, we've taken him out six times to wipe him. Each time, he's fought us.”_

_“I thought you said…” Pierce started to say._

_“Each time, he was only out for less than an hour. I don't consider that an extraction.” The doctor turned towards Stephanie, and she finally got a look at the name tag. It had a name she hadn't expected to see, Erskine. It wasn't the same Erskine that led Project Rebirth, but it must have been a descendant of his. She didn't know a lot about him, so it's entirely possible he could have been married with children, or maybe this doctor was related to him another way._

_“Well, doctor, wake him up. I need him.”_

_Erskine sighed again, but turned back to the panel and pressed a few more buttons. Air released from some of the valves around the metal opening, and the door unlocked, popping open slightly. The doctor slid his fingers under the lip of the door, and opened it the rest of the way, taking several large steps back away from the man inside._

_Stephanie did the exact opposite. As Erskine moved away, she moved closer. The Soldier wore a pair of military issue cargo pants held up by a belt, and nothing else. No shirt, no boots. She lifted a hand, wanting to touch the scars that peppered his chest. But when she did, she felt nothing._

_The Soldier's eyes shot open and he stared straight ahead. Even though his head didn't move, his eyes darted from side to side, looking for the thing that had woken him up. He saw the normal people that were there when he awoke, but he didn't see anyone else. Still, the Soldier couldn’t help but feel like there was someone else there. Someone that didn’t mean him any harm._

_Lifting his hand, the Soldier laid it on his chest where Stephanie had tried to touch, rubbing at the spot. She backed away quickly, heart rate skyrocketing. When she moved off to the side and his eyes followed her, she got even more scared. This was a vision, not real life, why was he looking at her. How could he be seeing her? Was he seeing her? She looked back down at her fingers and saw that she was still transparent. The others didn’t see her, so she couldn’t figure out why the Soldier would be able to._

_The Soldier could feel the terror in whatever wasn't there, but he steeled his face against reacting. Somehow, he knew that reacting would only end up causing him more pain, even though the only thought in his brain was of the presence he felt. Still, he looked over at where he sensed it. Frowning, he examined the empty space, wondering why he felt as if someone was there. The only people in the room were those that meant him harm. But this presence didn’t feel angry or evil. In fact, it felt young and scared._

_Concentrating on the area, he attempted to focus to see if that would help. It did a little bit, magnifying the terror he felt coming from the area. But at the same time, he also got a better sense of the presence. It felt really young, reminding him of… Fuck, who did it remind him of? The Soldier swiped at his face, letting out a soft groan. Glancing over, he saw that Pierce and Erskine were still talking, so he turned his attention back to the spot and concentrated again. The presence felt… almost feminine. A little bit like his…_

_“Soldier,” Pierce barked, causing his head to turn away from the presence. “Are you ready to behave?”_

_As the Soldier nodded, Stephanie stared at him. The scars around the metal arm were so much worse than anything she ever could have imagined. It looked almost as if he had tried to claw it off of his body. The scars that littered his chest appeared to be a mixture of knife and bullet wounds. When he climbed out of the container, taking a step toward the machine, she finally saw his back and gasped. There were long scars cross-hatched across his skin, stark and white against his slight tan. They looked like he’d been… Shaking her head, she avoided thinking about it. She didn’t want to know where those came from._

_Closing her eyes, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Wake up, wake up, wake up,” she murmured. She couldn’t take seeing him this way, seeing him being treated like an animal. The scars on his back made this vision worse than anything she’d ever seen. She knew that he’d been treated horribly by HYDRA, the comics didn’t even bother alluding to it, they straight up put it in there. But they never showed the extent of his injuries, nor how he got them. The only thing she could think after seeing the scars on his back was that they had tortured him._

_Opening her eyes, she saw him sitting in the chair, being strapped down by the guards with guns, eyes staring directly into hers. Her heart broke for him, any fear she may have felt dissipating. Walking over, she stepped between the guards and his legs, laying a hand on his cheek, wishing that he knew she was there. She whispered, “I’m sorry.”_

\--------------------

Sitting up in bed, Stephanie swiped at the tears rolling down her face. She didn’t want to put this in the book, not even a little bit, but she knew she had to. Just like she knew she would have to ask her grandfather about seeming to be a part of the vision, and Bucky noticing her. It made no sense unless it was simply a dream. Laying back in bed, she closed her eyes, fervently praying that she wouldn’t see that again. As much as she wished she could be there with him, be a support for him, Stephanie didn’t know if she could take seeing him hurting. The comics had shown how much pain the chair gave, every scream and tear illustrated for the world to see. Once her grandfather had told her that the universe was real, she’d started to realize that meant the stories in the comics must be real as well, at least partially. And if they were real, that meant the agony that Steve and Bucky experienced was as well.

\--------------------

_Stephanie walked around, unsure as to where she was. Looking down, she saw that her hands were transparent again. This time though, there wasn’t anything that looked even vaguely familiar. The area was dark and covered in ice, the shapes a bunch of amorphous blobs. Moving around, she kept her eyes on the ground, trying to see if there was anything that would hint at her location._

_After a little bit, a beam of light cascaded inside, allowing her to see more of the area. It was a wreck of some kind. Since the only visions she'd ever had were of Steve and Bucky, she knew it had to be one of them._ _As her eyes adjusted, she looked back around the room and realized where she was. This was the HYDRA aircraft that Steve had downed in order to save millions of people in New York City. But since she'd never had a vision without them being actively in it, that meant he was around there somewhere. She set off to explore, at first avoiding pieces of metal that littered the ground. But when she got close to one, her foot went through it and she felt nothing. From then on she didn't bother trying to dart around the objects. Subconsciously she still did, her brain not wanting her body to get hurt, but she ceased actively thinking about it._

_She kept looking around the plane, trying to find the nose of the craft. In the comics, he had been in the pilot seat when it crashed. So if that were to hold true, that means he should be in the cockpit area strapped in the seat. But as she moved into where he should be, even with the large windows letting the sun hit every crevice of the area, he wasn’t there. Her eyes darted from side to side, searching the metal interior for any sign of him, knowing he must be nearby somewhere. After all, they did eventually discover his body on board this plane._

_After a few minutes, she noticed something colorful out of the corner of her eye and headed toward that. It was his shield, half-buried under the ice. Searching that area, she kept looking for him knowing that he had to be there. It took another few minutes before she noticed a shape that looked out of place. Walking over toward it, she kept her eyes on the body shaped lump, hoping it was him, while at the same time praying it wasn't._

_But when she got there, her hopes and fears were realized, it was him. He laid on the ground, arms crossed over his chest, a look of pain etched on his face. He was remarkably well-preserved, which probably meant that he'd simply fall asleep and then been frozen. But how did he get from the cockpit to this spot? A sudden thought came to her, making her want to cry. He wasn't frozen near the cockpit, that meant that after the plane crashed he was still alive and awake. That meant that he had stood up, staggered away from his chair, probably trying to find some way to contact Peggy and let her know that he was still alive and where to find him._

_"Goddammit," she muttered. Sinking to the ground on her knees, she reached out, wanting to touch him. Just like with everything else, she couldn't feel him. Just like with the vision about Bucky, she wanted to offer comfort but couldn't. There was nothing she could do, no way for her to help. All she could do was watch and take note of what happened, then wake up and write it down._

_If her grandfather was correct and these were visions of an alternate universe, then she wouldn't be able to comfort or help them. This was one of those times where she wondered if maybe she hadn't just inherited a psychosis from Stan and reading the comics about their lives just made her dreams extrapolate on the information, making her see things worse than anything she'd read. What she did know was that she was uncertain how long she'd be able to handle seeing the boys like this, suffering and in pain. The comics had always made it obvious that their lives weren't perfect, showing the pain and agony that they went through, but they still had moments of happiness. But seeing Steve like this, seeing Bucky with the scars on his body, made her realize that their lives were much worse than anything she would ever read about._

\--------------------

Eyes fluttering open, Stephanie stared up at her mother who looked concerned. “Mom?” she asked, voice hoarse. When she pushed up to a seated position, exhaustion hit her like a ton of bricks. It took all of her willpower not to fall back onto the bed. The visions had never done that to her before, making her tired the next morning. They’d always been more like dreams, just showing up and making her feel.

“God, Stephanie, I’ve been trying to wake you up for ten minutes.” Joan cupped her daughter's face, trying to put on a brave smile. “I was about ready to call an ambulance when you woke up.”

“Sorry,” she mumbled, a big yawn making it nearly impossible to say anything else. As she reached up to rub her eyes, trying to wake up, she added, “Was havin’ a dream. Didn’t hear you.”

“You need to get ready for school.” Joan frowned when she realized how warm her daughter felt, the frown deepening when Stephanie yawned again, her jaw cracking with the force of it. “Nevermind, you feel like you’re getting sick. You’re staying home today.”

“Mom,” she protested softly. “I’ve got a test.”

Laying the back of her hand on her daughter’s forehead, Joan shook her head. “No can do, kiddo. You look exhausted and you’re starting to feel warm. Go back to sleep, I’ll call you out at school.”

Stephanie laid back down, pulling the blanket over her head. She didn’t feel sick, just more tired than she ever had before. It felt as if she hadn’t slept all night. Closing her eyes, she fell back asleep.


	3. Tears Fall Free

2001 

_Stepping through a doorway, Steve forced a static expression on his face. There were so many people around all waiting to watch him go through something that sounded like science fiction. Looking off to the side, he noticed Agent Carter standing there, a soft smile on her face. He couldn’t help but think she was beautiful, even if she would never look at him as anything other than a soldier. If she even looked at him like that at all. It wasn’t her beauty that made him look, but her spirit._

_As he watched her, she turned and saw him looking, saying something to the man on her right. When she started walking toward him, he stood a little straighter, reaching up to smooth his green army-issue tie. Her smile softened as she approached and she gave him a slight nod. “Rogers, why don’t you come with me a moment?” She turned her head slightly in the direction of another door. “I want to talk to you for a second before Erskine begins the procedure.”_

_“Yes, ma’am.”_

_Shaking her head, she led the way out of the laboratory into an office. Perching on the edge of the desk, her smile warmed more. “You know, when I first met you, I didn’t think much of you.”_

_Looking down at himself, he frowned. “I know, I’m not…”_

_She pushed off the desk and placed a finger under his chin, lifting up his face. “That was when I first met you. I was wrong then, and if I still believed that, I would be wrong now. Steve Rogers, you are a good man. That is why Erskine chose you for Project Rebirth over everyone else.”_

_“I’m nothin’ special,” he muttered, looking anywhere but at her. “Agent Carter…”_

_“Peggy, please.” She gave him a soft smile. “When we’re alone, feel free to call me Peggy.”_

_“Agent… Peggy, anyone would have jumped on that grenade. I didn’t do anything that…”_

_“No, they wouldn’t,” she said sternly. “When Phillips tossed the dummy grenade, you were the only one to run toward it instead of away.” Laying a hand on his arm, she squeezed gently. “But that’s not why I brought you in here. You are a good man, no matter how hard you try to deny it. But… if you want to back out of this, I will talk to Erskine and…”_

_“No!” Steve’s hands balled into fists, his back straightening with determination. “I want to do this. To do my part for my country. It’s why I joined the army, to fight for what’s right.”_

_“And you think you aren’t worthy?” she mumbled, shaking her head as she chuckled. “Well then, Rogers, let’s get started.”_

_They headed back out to the lab where Erskine waited patiently by a large metal sarcophagus that was opened up. Steve was given a pair of pants several sizes too large for him, and he left the room to go and change. When he came back, wearing only those while holding them up with a hand, he flushed from his cheeks down onto his chest. But even though his shoulders were hunched over, trying to hide the fact that he had no muscles, he still went over to the platform and climbed inside._

_Erskine came over and attached cuffs to his arm. Softly, he asked, “Are you ready for this, Mr. Rogers?”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_“No sir, Steve. How many times do I have to ask you to call me Abraham?” Erskine chuckled. “There is still time to back out. No one will fault you if you don’t want to go through with this.”_

_“No, sir. I’m doing this.” He watched as the blue liquid went through tubes and into his arm, gritting his teeth at the slight pain. When it finished and Erskine took off the cuffs, he asked, “Is that it?”_

_“Sorry, but it’s not.” Placing a hand on his shoulder, Erskine tried to offer some words of encouragement. “It shouldn’t hurt… much.”_

_“Just do it, doc.”_

_Nodding, he backed away and shut the sarcophagus, walking over to the panel next to it. He was supposed to give a speech, to say all these flowery words to mark the occasion, but he was worried about Steve. The serum hadn’t been tested, not since… Shaking his head, he tried to push thoughts of Schmidt out of his mind. Pressing a button, he reached over and turned the knob, raising the level of the electricity coursing through the container to the maximum._

_From inside the pod, Steve started screaming in pain, the sound not unlike a wounded animal. Tears filling her eyes, Peggy muttered, “Shut it off… shut it off.”_

_The lights flickered and Erskine looked over, seeing the distress on Peggy’s face. “It’s almost over,” he said softly. “Just a few more seconds. He’ll be fine.”_

_A tear rolled down her cheek, but she nodded, digging her fingernails into her palms to stop herself from breaking down. The screaming seemed to last forever, the sound of pain and agony almost too much for her to bear. If she had known how bad it would have been she would have told Erskine no. They didn’t need a super-soldier to win the war, no matter how bad it was._

_Then Erskine turned the knob and the hum of electricity ceased, as did the screaming. He went over to the sarcophagus, unlocking and opening it. As the door swung open a big smile crossed his face. It worked, it really worked. Steve was huge, twice as big as he had been before._

_Steve groaned, the lingering pain from the transformation making every part of his body ache. Pushing himself up and out, he stood on shaky legs and looked around the room. So many people were staring at him with their mouths open, their eyes wide. He glanced down, surprised to see muscles and the floor further away. Lifting his hands, he stared at them. At least that hadn’t become unrecognizable. He still had the scar on his finger from when he and Bucky broke into Brooklyn stadium as kids, jumping over the chainlink fence. The metal from one of the wires had caught on his skin, cutting it nearly the length of his whole finger._

_“How are you feeling, Steve?” Erskine gently prodded._

_“Fine,” he mumbled, still looking at his larger hands. Looking over to the side, he saw Peggy staring at him with awe on her face. “Give me a sec, doc.” Turning, he went over to the office, shutting the door behind him. That’s when he let the tears fall down his face. Everything hurt, even though the remaining pain was nothing compared to what he had gone through._

_A hand touched his back and Peggy said softly, “Are you okay?” He turned and pulled her into his arms, burying his face against her shoulder as he cried. “Steve, what’s wrong?” She pulled back slightly, lifting his face up and wiping away the tears that rolled down his face. “You can tell me.”_

_Realizing what he was doing, Steve released her and sat on the edge of the desk, rubbing his eyes roughly. “It hurt, Peggy, so much.” He looked down at his hands, taking several deep breaths to calm down, although his tone still wavered. “It felt like my bones and muscles were being ripped apart, then stitched together again. I’m not sure which hurt worse, being torn apart at the seams, or..." His voice trailed off, not wanting to complete the sentence._

_“All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,” she mumbled._

_“Except I was put back together again.” Steve stood and stretched, feeling self-conscious when Peggy’s eyes went straight to his chest before she glanced away, cheeks pink. “We should go back out. I’m sure they want…”_

\-------------------

A hand on Stephanie's shoulder woke her up and she groaned, eyes fluttering open. “Mom,” she mumbled.

“I’ve brought you some medicine and orange juice.” Joan sat on the edge of the bed, holding them in her hands. “Sit up for me, sweetheart.”

Stephanie did as she asked, taking the pill from her mother and drinking it down with the juice. Handing the glass back to her mother, she coughed. “Thanks, Mom.”

Joan pressed a kiss to her daughter’s head. “Go back to sleep, sweetheart. I’ll bring you lunch in a few hours - chicken noodle soup.”

As her mother left the room, she pulled the blanket back over her head and shut her eyes. Maybe a few hours more of sleep would help her feel better.

\--------------------

_“Dammit, Sarah,” Joseph raged, gesturing wildly with his glass. Beer sloshed over the edge, spilling onto his hand. “Since we got to this country, it’s all been on me. Everything… ALL ON ME!!” Reaching up with his free hand, he backhanded her hard, snapping her head to the side. “You think the pennies you bring in from that garment factory add up to anything?”_

_Cupping her a hand around her nose, Sarah stood, the blood dripping between her fingers. “Maybe the foreman would give you a chance if you’d show up to the job site in the morning with clear eyes…”_

_Fingers clenching tight on the beer bottle, he set it down on the counter, then turned back, an evil glint in his eyes. “You bitch.” His hand balled up into a fist, but he loosened his fingers and slapped her again, harder this time. As she fell to the ground, he yelled down at her, “Where do you get off telling me what to do? Watch what you’re suggesting. I am still the man of this house and…”_

_“What I’m suggesting, Joseph,” Sarah said, standing back up, her back ramrod straight even as the blood poured from her nose down her chin, “is that you get to work in the morning sober.”_

_“Damn your nerve, Sarah.” This time Joseph’s hand lifted up, fist pointed directly at her face. “Why I oughta…” Glaring at her, he turned away and grabbed his coat, disappearing out of the house and slamming the door behind him._

_Sarah picked up a towel and pressed it to her nose, trying to stem the bleeding. When she heard soft sobs coming from underneath the table, she wiped up the blood the best she could and crouched on the floor, looking at her young son under the table. Opening her arms, she said softly, “Come here, dear.” Steve rushed into her arms, pressing his face against her shoulder, tears streaming down his face. She rubbed his back. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”_

_“Why?” he sobbed. “Wh-why didn’t you j-just stay down, Mama?”_

_Pulling him away from her, she looked down into his blue eyes, saying seriously, “Because, and you listen close, Steven… you always stand up. You never give in to the fear of a bully.” She wiped her thumbs over her son’s cheeks, clearing the tears as they fell. “They want you to react, to back down. You show them that you are better than them.”_

_“Always stand up, Mama?”_

_“Always stand up.” She pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Now, go to your room and get your shoes, Winifred is coming over with Bucky and we’re going to go to the park in a little bit.”_

\--------------------

Stephanie woke up crying, not an unfamiliar feeling. This wasn’t something her grandfather had ever told her. She knew there must be a reason his catchphrase was ‘I can do this all day,’ but finding out his father had been abusive… Burying her face in the pillow, she wept for the little boy she had seen in her vision. At least he’d had Bucky. Even when he had nothing, he still had his friend. That was the only thing that made those visions palatable, the fact that his entire life wasn’t filled with such misery.

After her tears dried, she crawled out of bed and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, walking softly to the kitchen. The sound of the television came from the living room, so she picked up the phone and dialed her grandfather. When the phone picked up, before he could answer, she said roughly, “Hey, Grandpa.”

“Stevie, what’s wrong?”

Should she do it? Should she ask her grandfather about the fact that Bucky seemed to see her in the vision she’d had while sleeping? She couldn’t do it, inquiring instead, “Do you ever feel like you don’t sleep when you have your visions? I had two last night, woke up feeling like I’d been awake the entire time.”

“Oh, poor girl, I’m sorry.” He sounded so distraught, Stephanie felt bad for asking. Stan sighed. “You must have had a vision of the present. Those are always the worst of the bunch. Did anything… strange happen?”

This was when she should tell him everything, but she couldn’t. Interacting with Bucky seemed like something she should keep to herself, something personal. So she decided to tell him only part of it. “I had a vision of Bucky in a lab, except he wasn’t Bucky. I’m pretty sure he was the Winter Soldier. They woke him up, then put him in the chair. I woke before they flipped the switch.”

“And nothing else happened?”

“No.” She tried to keep her voice even, not wanting him to know the truth. “When I fell back asleep, I had a vision of the ship that Steve is frozen on. I couldn’t wake up, no matter how hard I tried… at least, not until Mom woke me up.” When Stan tried to speak, she kept going. “Why didn’t you have them write into the comics that Steve’s mother was abused?”

“Dammit,” he groaned. “I was hoping you wouldn’t find out about that.”

“What? I’m supposed to believe what the rest of the world does? That his father was a war hero who died in a mustard gas attack?” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Technically, he did die a hero in a mustard gas attack, but he was also an abusive… jerk.” Stan sighed again. “Joseph Rogers is part of the reason Steve became who he was. His father is why he doesn’t like bullies, no matter what shape or size they come in. Whether they’re in the schoolyard…”

“Or in the government,” she added softly.

“Or in the government,” Stan repeated, a smile in his voice. “Are you sure nothing weird happened in the dreams?”

“No, Grandpa,” she lied again. “Nothing weird happened other than waking up tired.”

“Good. You’ll let me know if that changes.”

“I promise.”


	4. Auditions

2009 

Stephanie sat on a bench outside of the studio, excited for the day to begin. Her grandfather was inside talking to the director of _Captain America: The First Avenger,_ deciding how they were going to go about finding their Steve. The director wasn’t even thinking about Bucky, even though that part was the most important to her she understood why they weren’t worried about him. The script revolved around Steve and how he became a hero, Bucky was a secondary character. They were hoping that one of the actors coming in to audition for Steve would fit the role of Bucky.

Over the years since she turned thirteen, she’d had more visions than she could count. Sometimes they came every day, sometimes it would be months in between each one. The one thing she hadn’t had since was a vision of the present. That made her both happy and sad. Happy, because having the Soldier’s blue eyes stare straight into hers was unnerving. Sad, because seeing Bucky that way made her want to pull him into her arms and hold him tight, never letting go.

There was one thing she’d barely admitted to herself, and definitely not to her grandfather, was that she had a crush on Bucky Barnes. A man who didn’t exist, at least not in her universe, and she liked him. The thought made her crazy. At twenty-two, she should be above having a thing for a man who wasn't real. But those eyes, the pain she saw in her visions, it made her want to get to know him better. It made her wish that she could pull him into her arms, telling him that he was a good man no matter what HYDRA made him do. It made her wish that she could see him for real. 

But even though Bucky was her favorite, both of the boys held a special place in her heart. She knew more about them than her grandfather did even though he’d had the visions for decades longer than her. When she had told him that Bucky’s favorite color was the pink the sky turned during a sunset, his eyes had grown so large she thought they would pop out of his head. When she’d told him that Steve had lost his virginity at sixteen to one of Bucky’s slightly older female friends, he’d just shook his head muttering about how a girl shouldn’t know those things. Stephanie had just laughed, knowing that he couldn’t believe she knew more about their backstories than he did. He knew more about their heroic deeds, but for some reason, she saw more of them from their day-to-day life.

A body settled onto the bench next to her and she looked over, doing a double-take when she saw him. God, he looked almost exactly like Steve. His hair was a darker brown, but he had the same piercing blue eyes, the same killer smile. He held out his hand and she shook it. “Nice to meet you. Name’s Chris.” When he released her hand, he nodded in the direction of the studio. “You here for the Captain America auditions?”

Stephanie couldn’t help herself, she laughed. Seeing someone who was the spitting image of the Steve she’d been seeing in her visions for years was uncanny. She’d never even considered the fact that maybe there were people in this universe that might look like them. When she stopped laughing, she gave him a huge smile. “Kinda sorta.”

“And that means…”

“My name is Stephanie Lee, granddaughter of Stan Lee.” When he didn’t recognize the name, she chuckled again. “He helped create Captain America, so I know more about Steve Rogers than probably anyone else in this building. I’m here to watch the auditions and help pick who will play him.” Glancing down, she did a slow checkout of his body, nodding in approval. “You’re a little less muscular than Steve would be, but otherwise, I think you look pretty good.”

“Just pretty good, huh?” He flashed another winning smile at her, winking.

“Yeah, pretty good.” Leaning back against the wall, she looked up at the ceiling. “So, anything you want to know about him? To help with your audition, that is.”

“Can you give me a sense of who he is? His motivation?” When Stephanie got a soft look on her face, Chris stared at her, wondering why she'd get that look for an imaginary character.

“Well, the first thing you should learn about Steve is that he grew up in the 1930s in Brooklyn.” Looking at Chris, her mouth quirked up into a sassy smile. “So if they try to tell you he's this innocent, naive, soft guy... he's not. In fact…” she turned to her backpack that was on the ground by her feet, digging through for her portfolio. Her mother had gotten her one of those professional folders to keep her art in, especially since she went through so many sketchbooks drawing pictures of the boys in their lives. However, she didn't want to keep all the pictures, at least not on her, so the portfolio only held those that she really liked. Pulling it out, she flipped through the pages until she found the one she wanted and handed the book to him. “So, I'm assuming you know about Bucky?”

Chris nodded as he stared down at the picture. It was the most beautiful and erotic thing he'd ever seen. It was like he was from the position of the guy on the bed, the girl's head was on the pillow, her dark hair spread out over the white sheet. It was only done in black and white, so he couldn't tell what color her eyes were, or the color of her lipstick, but he could tell a lot of other things about her from this drawing. She had long thick eyelashes, a perky little nose, luscious full lips, and breasts that most men would die to get their hands on. Everything about her looked incredibly realistic, including the heart-shaped freckle on her left collarbone. The satisfied smile on her face said more than words ever could.

“So,” she started to say, not noticing the pink blush that had spread to Chris's cheeks, “when Steve was sixteen Bucky got him a girl. Now, before you go thinking that someone who is seventeen is out there procuring hookers, it wasn't like that at all. He had some... friends, slightly older women, and found one that would be willing to help his friend out.” That's when she looked over and saw how intently Chris was staring at the picture. Her cheeks burned, and she stammered, “Sorry, I forgot how... erotic it was.”

Chris looked up. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-two, although I turn twenty-three in December.” He looked relieved, so she asked, “Why? How old did you think I was?”

Shaking his head, Chris refused to answer the question. Saying that she looked like a teenager would only get him in trouble. “Doesn't matter. But yes, the picture is a little erotic, although I would say it's more artistic than anything else. It's beautiful. Can I look through the rest?”

As she was about to say yes, she realized that there were pictures of Steve from after the serum and that Chris might be a little weirded out to see that he looked just like him. Holding out her hand, she took the portfolio back from him. “How about this? I'll let you see more after you get the part.” Placing it back in her backpack, she looked back over at him. “Really, there are two important things to know about Steve. One is the reason why he never backs down from a fight. Before his father died, he was an abusive bastard. Not to Steve, but to his mother. She taught him that you always stand up, never let the bullies think that you're beaten.”

“Really?!” Chris seemed shocked. “There's nothing in the script to indicate that at all. In fact, the only thing in there about his father was that he died from mustard gas and was in the 107th.”

“And that's true. My grandfather had them leave out the part about Steve's mom. Thought it would be too depressing for a comic.” That wasn't quite the truth, but Stephanie didn't know how to tell him that her grandfather hadn't known about how bad it was until she had told him about her visions. His had only included the verbal abuse, the physical abuse was something only she had seen.

“What's the other thing I need to know about him?”

“That Bucky is his family. Steve's father died when he was still a kid, his mother in 1936. So seven years later when he finally joins the military, the only person he has left in his life is Bucky.” She looked down at her hands, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. “James Barnes is Steve's brother. Not by birth, but by choice.” Looking up, she didn't bother hiding the tear that rolled down her cheek. “Did they give you the entire script?”

“Most of it. At least I'm assuming that they gave me most of it.”

“Did you get the part about the train?” When he shook his head, she sighed. “I don't know why they're keeping that a secret, but maybe they don't want everyone to know in case someone decides to leak spoilers. So, as long as you don't tell the director I'm giving you this information, Bucky dies. Steve is devastated because Bucky was his best friend, his only remaining family. So as long as you can show that in your acting, you have my vote.”

“I haven't even auditioned yet,” he said chuckling, one eyebrow raised. “How do you know I’ll…”

Reaching over, she laid a hand on his knee briefly. “Trust me, I know.”

The door opened and Stan came out, hiding his shock at seeing Chris better than Stephanie had. “Stevie, we're about to get started. You want to come in and watch?”

They both turned to look and Stephanie felt a huge smile creep over her face. “Of course, Grandpa. I want to watch Chris here kill his audition.” She bumped her shoulder against his, then stood up and grabbed her backpack. “Come on, kid. Let's show them that you have what it takes to be Captain America.”

Chris walked into the room first, and Stan grabbed Stephanie's arm, stopping her before she could follow. “What's going on, Stevie?”

“Grandpa,” she said in a hushed voice, “he looks just like Steve.”

“I know. I see it too. But…”

“I gave him some pointers on Steve's life, that's all. I think he'll be good.”

“Did you get a... feeling?”

Stephanie knew her grandfather was asking about the spikes of intuition she would get sometimes that she assumed we're about her boys. Actually, she assumed that they were all about Bucky. They were few and far between, but since Steve was still frozen on the ice in the alternate universe the only one that could be awake was Bucky. They would come during all hours of the day, as long as she was awake. Most of the time they sucked, feelings of pain and agony, but every once in awhile there would be a feeling of peace. She lived for those moments, especially considering they were few and far between.

Shaking her head, she chuckled softly. “No Grandpa, I didn’t have a feeling. You know as well as I do, I have never had a feeling or a vision for anyone in this universe. I just... I have a sense that he's going to do well.”

After Chris's audition, she walked up to him and gave him her phone number, telling him to call or text whenever, if he wanted to discuss Steve or anything else. He gave her a weird look, probably thinking she was hitting on him, but took it and promised to do just that. Then, Stephanie went and spent a good ten minutes arguing with the directors as to why he was the perfect Steve. They didn't want to listen to her, insisting on more auditions. Not caring to see them, she went back out to her bench and sat down, knowing in her heart that Chris was the only one who could play her Steve.

Opening up her sketchbook, Stephanie took out her pencil and started drawing a scene from one of her latest visions that she didn't quite understand. It had been one of the shortest visions she'd ever had, having fallen asleep on the couch and been woken up by her mother shortly thereafter. The vision had taken place on a battlefield, fighting happening all around. The only part she'd seen was Iron Man kneeling on the ground, his helmet gone, blood streaming down his face from a cut on his head. A rainbow of electrical currents had been jumping from one of his hands that he held up, black lines tracing patterns on his neck and the side of his face. As he had snapped his fingers and said ‘And I... am... Iron Man,’ that's when she'd woken up.

“Holy shit, that's really good,” a male voice exclaimed from next to her on the bench.

Stephanie startled, whipping her head to the sound of the voice. When she turned, it took everything in her power to not whisper, ‘Bucky.’ She laid her hands over the drawing, not really feeling comfortable with anyone seeing it.

The man gave her a half-smile, his blue eyes twinkling with mirth. “You're really good, you know.”

“Thanks?”

He laughed and held out a hand for her to shake. As she did, he said, “My name is Sebastian Stan.”

“Stephanie. Stephanie Lee.” When he looked back down at the book, she sighed and took her other hand off of the drawing, turning the book so he could get a better look. “It's just something I do for fun,” she lied.

“That looks incredibly realistic. Do you know Robert Downey Jr? Or have you studied the Iron Man movie? Because that looks just like him, although a little bit older than he is right now.”

“That's because it takes place in the future,” she mumbled.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “The future?”

Closing up her sketchbook, she tucked it back into her backpack. “So, I'm guessing you're here for the Captain America audition?” He nodded. “Have you thought about any of the other characters?”

“Eh, not really. I’m just here because I thought it would be fun to play a hero.” He leaned back against the wall, head still turned in her direction with a small smile on his face. Running a hand through his hair, he asked, “Why? Is there another character you think I'd be better for? Cause let me tell you, I only rehearsed for Steve Rogers.”

“To be honest, you kind of have a little bit of an air of bad boy about you. Has anyone ever told you that?”

He laughed, eyes squeezing shut as he laid a hand on his stomach. When he caught his breath, he looked down at her again. “I get that all the time, actually.”

“Well, I think you would make a good Bucky Barnes.” She held up a hand to stop him from saying anything. “But only if you think you can do him justice. Bucky is by far my favorite character in the Captain America universe, and if you don't think that you can give him the depth of emotion he deserves, then you should probably just stick with auditioning for Steve.”

“Color me intrigued. Tell me about this Bucky.”

“Oh God, I could talk about him for days.” She felt her cheeks heat up, so she leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes, not wanting to see Sebastian's face as she spoke. “Bucky and Steve are best friends, more like brothers than anything else. He's actually drafted into the army, whereas Steve lies on his enlistment forms multiple times to get in. Of course, he doesn’t tell Steve he was drafted because telling him that he didn’t want to go to war when his friend was so desperately trying to get accepted using any means necessary, was a hard thing to admit.” Opening her eyes, she turned toward the man that looked like a younger, more carefree version of her favorite guy. “Bucky gets captured, then rescued by Steve. When he’s asked if he’d be willing to follow Captain America back into battle, you know what he says? That he won’t follow Captain America, but the guy from Brooklyn that he grew up with, the one who never backed down from a fight, that was who he wanted to follow.” Digging in her purse, she pulled out a loose piece of paper and wrote down her phone number. “Look, if you get the part of Bucky or any other part, and you want some insight into your character, give me a call. Or text, whatever you prefer.”

“Are you…”

“No, I’m not hitting on you,” she stated plainly. “I just know more about Steve and Bucky than anyone else. So if you want, call or text. If not…” She shrugged. The door opened and the director looked at Sebastian. She nodded toward him. “You should probably get going. Good luck.”


	5. Captain America

2010 

_“I told you we should have made sure he was wiped completely before we put the arm on, Herr Zola. Barnes is too strong-willed.” The German scientist ran a hand through his hair, took off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes. “He's American, they fight through anything no matter how stupid it is.”_

_“Of course, Robert, you are right.” Zola looked in through the small window on the door in front of them, smiling at whatever was inside. “The problem, dear Robert, is that they want him fully functional.” He gestured to the guards standing near the door. “Take Herr Barnes to the interrogation room.”_

_“What are you thinking?” Robert asked, placing his glasses back onto his face._

_“Well, Barnes does not know that his precious Captain Rogers is dead yet. And there are always other avenues we can explore to break his spirit.”_

_As Zola and Robert moved out of the way of the door, two of the guards raised their rifles and pointed them at it. Another of the guards went over, opening it for yet another guard to approach the prisoner inside. When Bucky walked out of the room, head held up defiantly, even though his arms were held painfully tight behind his back he looked over at Zola and grinned. “Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, 32557038.” He grinned even wider, baring his teeth. “And you can go straight to hell Zola.”_

_Voice even, Zola commanded, “Take him.”_

_The guards surrounded Bucky, marching him out of the room and down the hall. He didn’t try to escape, knowing it to be futile. The metal arm made him stronger than the guards, but it was too heavy, making it hard to move. He was fairly certain it was meant for someone with more strength… strength he didn’t quite have._

_They took him through an open doorway and took off the handcuffs, stretching his arms out to the side, clasping cuffs on his wrists that were attached to chains hooked onto the walls. Once they did that, Robert came in and picked up a pair of scissors, cutting the shirt from Bucky’s body. Vicious red scars radiated out from where the metal met the arm, both from it being attached to flesh and pulling on it, as well as scratch marks from where he’d tried to tear at it with his fingernails._

_Zola walked in, glad to see that Bucky was all ready for him. Walking over to the table, he picked up a short whip, tipped with sharp pieces of metal. “Well, Herr Barnes, are you ready to begin?”_

_Bucky tried not to show his fear, stating calmly, “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”_

_Zola laughed, head thrown back, hand on his stomach. When he could finally take a breath again, he wiped at the tears rolling down his cheeks and smiled. “You know of Gandhi, Herr Barnes? Who would have thought you were so well-read?” He chuckled again as he thought about how Bucky would react if he ever learned that he was going to be trapped in his own mind. Trailing his fingers over the end of the whip, he gave an evil smile. “Does it surprise you that I too know of Gandhi?”_

_Bucky knew that talking with him was a bad idea, but he couldn’t help himself. The sarcastic comeback was just begging to be said. “Wasn’t sure you could read.”_

_Fingers tightening on the leather, Zola said the one thing he knew would hurt Bucky more than anything else. “You remember your precious Captain Rogers? The man who wept after you fell off the train?” Bucky’s eyes went wide, unable to hide his surprise. Zola laughed. “He’s not coming to save you this time, Herr Barnes. Captain Rogers is dead.”_

_“No,” he mumbled._

_“Yes.” Handing the whip off to a guard, he laughed again as Bucky sagged in the chains. “Your self-sacrificing friend crashed a plane to save lives. He’s long dead. No one could have survived that fall.”_

_Bucky looked down at the ground, not wanting to believe him. Not wanting to believe that Steve could really be gone. “No,” he mumbled again._

_“Yes,” Zola said both to him and to the guard. As the guard raised the whip, he added, “Let me know when you’ve had enough and are willing to do as I ask.”_

_The guard swung the whip down. As the shards of metal pierced his back and cut a line down his back, Bucky’s head lifted and he bit back a scream. Over and over again, the whip landed, each time slicing another bleeding ribbon onto his back. When it came down again, he couldn’t stop the scream that erupted from his throat. Every inch of his back was on fire, radiating pain._

\--------------------

“God, Chris, I’m fucking exhausted,” Sebastian groaned, swiping a hand over his face. “We gotta get up in,” he looked at his phone’s lock screen, “six hours for training. Did we really need to rehearse so long?”

“Sorry, not sorry. I wanted to make sure we got it down before we went to sleep,” Chris laughed. His laughter cut off as they walked past Stephanie’s trailer and heard a blood-curdling scream coming from inside. “What the fuck?” he yelled as he raced to the door. Jiggling the handle, he realized it was locked.

Another scream came from inside and Sebastian ran up beside him. “What if she’s being hurt?” he asked quietly, trying to keep his voice down in case there was someone inside.

“It’s locked.”

“Break it down. Or I will.”

Chris took a step back and raised a leg, smashing his foot into the door near the handle, kicking it open. Rushing in, he headed back to the bedroom, hearing Stephanie sobbing “no, no, no” over and over again. As he pushed it open, he sagged in relief when he saw no one with her. But then he realized she must be having a bad dream and moved over to the bed, leaning over her and gently shaking her shoulder. “Stevie, wake up,” he said loudly.

“Chris?” Sebastian muttered as he rushed into the room. “What’s happening?”

“She’s having a nightmare,” he stated. Shaking her harder, he kept it up until her eyes fluttered open and he cupped her face, rubbing his thumb on her cheek. “Hey there, kid, we heard screaming. How are you doin’?”

Tears rolled down Stephanie’s cheeks as she tried to stop the sobs rising up inside of her. She had seen the scars before, but never how he got them. Seeing that was worse than anything she had ever imagined. “I’m fine,” she croaked out.

“No, you’re not,” Sebastian said from over by the door. Moving closer, he took in her red eyes, the wetness on her cheeks. “Want to talk about it?”

“No.” She reached up and laid a hand over Chris’s, closing her eyes briefly. Pulling his hand away from her face, she rubbed at her eyes. “What time is it?”

“Just after midnight,” Chris said softly.

“Fuck,” she muttered. “I’m fine, guys. Go… go get some sleep. I know you have an early call time tomorrow.”

Staring down at her, Chris couldn’t help but worry. “Kid, neither one of us is going to be able to sleep knowing how terrified you are.” He looked over at Sebastian, “What do you think, Seb?”

“One of us could stay?” he offered.

“You don’t need to do that,” she whispered. “I’ll be fine.”

“Stevie, we heard you clear outside. That sure as hell didn’t sound like nothing.” Sebastian sighed, running a hand through his hair. “This isn’t up for debate. One of us is staying.”

“But…”

Chris toed off his sneakers, sat down on the bed, and laid down on his back, fluffing the pillow to get comfortable. “No buts. We’re staying. Both of us.” Rolling to his back he looked at Sebastian. “Come on, Seb, you take the other side.”

Sebastian took off his shoes too, crawling into bed next to her. Laying on his side, he snuggled up against her, wrapping his arm around her waist. “Sleep, Stevie. We’ll be here if you have any other nightmares.”

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, closing her eyes. “You guys shouldn’t have to do this.”

Chris interlaced his fingers with hers and sighed softly, feeling himself beginning to drift off. “You’re our friend, kid. We’re always gonna be here for you. Now go to sleep.”

\--------------------

Stephanie woke up, a strange feeling of worry washing over her. She distinctly remembered the boys forcing their way into her bed, forcing her to accept their comfort after her nightmare, but they weren't there anymore. Had she dreamed it all? When she rolled over to pick up her phone and shut off her alarm, a piece of paper tucked underneath caught her eye.

_Stevie,_

_You were sleeping so peacefully Chris and I didn't want to wake you. We're heading off to training, see you in a few hours on set._

_Seb_

Smiling, she got out of bed and started getting ready for the day. The scene they were filming today was one of her favorite visions. It was at the bar where Bucky tells Steve that he'd follow the little guy from Brooklyn who would never back down from a fight. The screenwriters had changed it, wanting to make Steve and Peggy's story more poignant, so they had made it so that he couldn't dance. Little that they knew, but Steve was an excellent dancer, at least after the serum. It made him more agile and graceful, so assuming he would have two left feet was the director's way of keeping Peggy and him apart. That night at the bar is actually when they took their relationship to the next level. She didn't have the vision of them doing more than kissing, thankfully, but it was implied when they left the bar together, holding hands and blushing as they stared into one another’s eyes.

When she got to the set, the first thing she did was walk over to where the boys were standing talking. It was really too bad that she couldn't look at them without seeing Steve and Bucky, because they were gorgeous guys, especially in the 1940s era uniforms with their hair slicked back. Moving over to them, she said softly, “Thanks for staying with me last night.”

Chris looked down and gave her a huge smile, tossing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her tight against him. “Anytime, kid.”

“I'm not a kid,” she mumbled. Stephanie wasn't upset that he called her that, she knew he did it out of affection, but it still rankled her a little bit that he looked at her and saw a child.

“Sweetheart, I'm five years older than you, you're a kid to me.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. Looking up at Sebastian, she narrowed her eyes playfully. “Are you going to tell me how old you are now too?”

“Hey, I'm not old!” Chris pouted.

Sebastian held up his hands and laughed. “Don't worry, Stevie, I'm not getting involved in this argument.”

When Chris released her, she looked over to where the director was sitting and saw him gesture for her to come over. “I guess that's my cue.”

As she wandered over, She couldn't help but think about the vision she had the night before. Seeing Bucky that way was horrible, listening to him scream was the worst thing she could ever imagine. When she made it over to the camera area, she looked at Joe. “So, how can I help?”

\--------------------

“I wonder what her nightmare was about,” Sebastian puzzled as Stephanie walked away.

“I don't know, but I think she should talk about it with somebody.” Chris reached up to run a hand through his hair, stopping before he touched the perfectly coiffed hairdo. He really didn't want to piss the makeup people off by messing up their hard work. “All I know is that talking about things helps.”

“Hey, I'm not arguing with you.” Sebastian darted his eyes around to see if anyone else was close by, then added softly, “I have a therapist I see regularly. He helps me more than I probably even know.”

“Yeah, me too.” After admitting that, he looked over to where Stephanie was sitting in a chair next to the directors, gazing off into the distance. Looking in the same direction, he saw Hayley talking with a young, attractive production assistant. He elbowed Sebastian. “Which one do you think she’s staring at?” he asked, nodding in the direction of Stephanie’s gaze.

“Hmm, I don’t know. I mean, I know which one I’d be looking at.”

Chris laughed. “Yeah, especially in that red dress.” Sobering, he looked over at his co-star. “Seriously though, she hasn’t talked about dating anyone. You think that maybe she’s shy or…”

Shaking his head, he interrupted, “Why don’t you ask her? That’s easier than…”

“Good idea,” Chris agreed, a huge grin crossing over his face as he turned and started marching over to where Stephanie sat.

Following Chris over, Sebastian muttered, “That isn’t what I meant.”

As Sebastian drew closer, Chris was already at her side, gesturing in the direction of Hayley and the production assistant. “See something you like?”

Stephanie’s face turned bright red as she looked at the boys standing next to her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she denied vehemently. 

“Come on, they’re both pretty attractive.” Chris leaned over, whispering, “I’d fuck him.”

“Chris!!” she exclaimed, slapping him lightly on the shoulder. “What in the hell?”

He laughed, standing up straight and lifting his right hand to his chest. “Stevie, I’m just messing with you. But seriously, which one?”

“I think what Chris is trying to say is that we can get his number for you if you want?” Sebastian glared lightly at Chris. “I’m pretty sure that Hayley is single too, but I’m not sure she swings that way.”

“Oh my god,” she mumbled, lifting a hand to try and cover her burning face. “Can’t a girl just look?”

Joe came over and looked at the boys. “Good, you’re here. Ready to start filming?”

\--------------------

Walking back toward their trailers, Sebastian yawned, jaw cracking as he did. “Fucking hell, I’m exhausted.”

“Me too,” Chris groaned, running a hand through his hair. As they neared Stephanie’s trailer, he looked at it. “You think she’s doing okay?”

“I hope…” His words trailed off as they heard a scream coming from her trailer, followed by the sound of sobbing. “Fuck, I spoke too soon.”

“Look, I’ll go tonight,” Chris stated. When Sebastian opened his mouth to argue, he grimaced and shook his head. “If she’s been having these nightmares often, I have a feeling she’ll need company more than just these two nights. I’m going to talk with her, see if I can get her to open up. You get some sleep.”

“You sure?” He yawned again, covering his mouth and trying to hide how tired he really was. “I don’t mind…”

Chris pushed him toward his trailer, turning to head for Stephanie’s door. “Go, Seb, I’ve got this.” He pushed open the door, thankful she hadn’t locked it this time, although, that could be due to the fact that her door was still broken from the previous night. Walking down the hall, he could still hear sobbing coming from her room and opened her bedroom door, frowning when he saw her curled up in a fetal position, tears streaming down her cheeks. Sitting on the bed, he lifted a hand and brushed it over her hair. “Wake up, sweetheart.”

Stephanie’s eyes fluttered open, seeing Chris sitting next to her, his face full of worry. She wiped at the tears on her face, trying to slow the erratic pace of her heart. “What’re you doin’ here?”

“We heard you scream again.”

“We?”

“Seb went to bed, I told him I would help tonight.” He ran his hand over her hair again, sighing. “You need to talk about it. No, don’t shake your head. Trust me, talking will help.”

Stephanie shut her eyes, not wanting to see the blue of his eyes that reminded her so much of Steve. Thank god Sebastian wasn’t in here too. He looked too much like Bucky for her to tell him what she’d seen. But still, she didn’t know that she could. “I… I can’t.”

“It’s just me, kid. You can tell me anything. I won’t judge.”

“It’s not that, it’s just…” She sighed, closing her eyes. Fuck, she needed to tell someone, and it’s not like she could tell her grandfather. All that would do is worry him, and that was the last thing she wanted. “I’ve been having nightmares about… Bucky.”

“Bucky?”

“God, how do I explain this?” Rubbing her eyes, she cleared her throat, trying to sound less hoarse. She pushed herself up to a seated position and stared at her hands, picking at the cuticles. “I know a lot about their life, having…” She tried to think of a plausible lie. “Having grown up with the stories. Quite a bit of his story after he falls off the train isn’t in the comics, and for good reason. I… I created the stories in my head as a child, extrapolating from what my grandfather told me. It’s not good.”

“How not good?” he asked quietly.

“He was tortured, repeatedly.” She rubbed her eyes again. “That’s what I was dreaming about, Zola having a guard beat him with a whip with shards of metal embedded in it.”

“Fuck,” he muttered, pulling her into his arms. “That sounds like a shitty thing to dream about.”

“Yeah.” Yawning, she buried her face against his chest. “I think I’m good now if you want to go back to your trailer.”

“You know I’m not going anywhere,” he said softly, rubbing her back. “How often do you have these nightmares?”

“Lately? Every night.”

“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do…” He pulled back and stood, kicking off his shoes. “You’re going to lay down, and I’m going to help you sleep tonight. Tomorrow, Seb will stay with you in case you have another.”

“Chris, that’s not necessary,” she protested.

As she laid back down, he crawled on top of the comforter and pulled her into his arms. “Maybe not, but you’re our friend. Hell, you’re like my little sister. If I can help you sleep better, I’m going to do it. So no arguing, okay?” He continued to rub her back and waited for a response, sighing in relief when he heard her steady breathing indicating she was asleep. “Sleep well, kiddo.”


	6. Premiere

2011 

Stepping out of the limousine, Stephanie was greeted with lots of flashing lights coming from the cameras of the press corps. She was glad she’d gotten her dress custom made by a friend to commemorate the occasion. It was princess-style, with a big poofy black skirt and a silver v-neck top. The skirt had an overlay of silver mesh with red stars all over it, and the silver top had thin black geometric lines reminiscent of Bucky’s metal arm. She had stopped short of having a red star put on the top portion of the dress, not wanting it to be too obvious about what she was doing.

As she stepped past the first wave of reporters, she saw Chris and Sebastian standing there, big smiles on their faces. Sebastian came up first, looking her up and down slowly. “Damn, Stevie, you clean up good.”

“I could say the same for you.” She took his proffered arm, then smiled at Chris. “You look good too. What are you guys doing here? I thought you’d already be walking the carpet, getting your pictures taken.”

“We were waiting for you.” Chris started walking and they followed, keeping a slow pace, smiling at the cameras that flashed as they moved to the first main area. “We heard that Stan couldn’t make it, so we’re here to walk with you.”

“Guys, we’re going to get all sorts of questions.”

“Who cares?” Sebastian said cheekily. “We’ve got the most beautiful girl by our side, the reporters can go to hell.”

They stopped at the first stop, the guys stepping away to take pictures separately. While she waited her turn, Hayley stepped up beside her. “Bloody hell, you look fantastic.”

“Thanks,” she said shyly, running her hands over her skirt. Hayley kept glancing down at her skirt and it was making her nervous. None of the stars should know that Bucky was going to become the Winter Soldier unless they’d read the comics to find out where the story was going. She’d been pretty sure that no one would understand the meaning behind the stars except for super-fans. If the fans knew about it, all that would do is make good fodder for the internet for the next several months. There was also a relatively good chance that if the fans posted about it online, the Marvel execs would chastise her for it. However, that hadn't stopped her desire to show love for her favorite character.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Tell anyone what?” Her voice cracked from nerves, but she managed to not drop the smile from her face.

“That you’re nervous, of course.” Hayley gave her a look. “What did you think I was going to say?”

At that moment, Chris walked back up and gave Hayley a big smile. “Well, Miss Atwell, you certainly look gorgeous tonight.” He turned to Stephanie and held out a hand for her to take. “Come on, kid. Let’s go confuse the magazine people.”

“See you later, Hayley,” Stephanie said cheerfully.

\--------------------

Stephanie could feel tears running down her cheeks as she threaded her fingers with Sebastian’s. He and Chris sat on either side of her, giving her support. After finding out that most of her nightmares were about Bucky, they had wanted to offer her whatever comfort she would accept. Watching him fall off the train on the big screen, even though it wasn’t exactly what happened, just brought back all the memories of her visions. The thing that saddened her the most, however, was that they didn’t show Steve’s reaction until later.

In her visions, he always fell back into the train, sitting with his back against the wall, his face in his hands as he wept for the man he thought of as a brother. Seeing Chris sitting at the bar, ugly crying, trying to get drunk, was the closest she had seen to them getting his emotions accurate. Other things they had gotten completely wrong. They had made Steve into an innocent and naïve guy who had zero luck with women. Granted, before the serum, the only woman he’d had luck with was Annabelle and that was because Bucky had arranged for them to have a double date and she’d seduced him. Steve had been good enough to earn several repeat performances, so to see him portrayed as a simpering virgin was irritating.

The only thing from the movie she’d never had a vision of was Steve in the faux hospital when he woke up. She honestly couldn’t figure out why her grandfather had seen it but she hadn’t. It could be because most of her visions revolved around Bucky for some reason, but that didn’t seem right. She’d had visions of Steve before, of many different parts of his life, both good and bad, both before and after the serum. But there were certain key points that she’d never seen and that was one of them.

Leaning over, she whispered in Chris’s ear, “You did a great job portraying Steve. Made me cry.”

“Thanks,” he murmured back. “But you should tell that to Seb. He’s more anxious about the performance than I am.” Patting her arm, he gave her a very Steve grin. “But thanks. Hearing you say I did well means a lot to me.”

Moving back over toward Sebastian, she looked at the man who reminded her so much of the man she felt more for than she should. Bucky was always at the forefront of her mind, his cocky smile and blue eyes hard to forget, especially when she was around the brother of her heart. She still held his hand in hers, so she rested her head against his shoulder and took a steadying breath. “You got him perfect, Seb. Better than perfect. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Bucky Barnes was actually on the screen.”

“Do you really think so?” he asked in a small voice.

Tilting her head so she could look up at him, she nodded. “I would never lie to you. You have a way of putting subtle emotions into things that makes the scene that much more poignant. You did fucking fantastic.”

“Thanks, Stevie.” He placed a kiss on the top of her head. “They were saying there’s gonna be another one of these. They want me to sign a multi-movie contract.”

“Do it. You are Bucky, so much so. I don’t know what they have planned for the other movies, but you are the only person I can imagine playing him.” Yawning, she sat up but didn’t let go of his hand. “I don’t think I’m gonna make it through the after-party. Will you guys be okay if I go home?”

Sebastian sounded stronger when he replied, “We’ll be fine. Are you sure you don’t want to come? It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

“God, I’d love to, but I didn’t sleep so well last night and…”

“Another nightmare?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah, but don’t worry, dad… I didn’t wake up screaming. I just couldn’t get back to sleep after, that’s all.” She chuckled and leaned back against his arm, trying to stay awake long enough to make it home. “I don’t want to be a party pooper, and I WILL pass out if I have even one drink. I’ll probably pass out even if I don’t have a drink, so I won't be very good company.” Pushing up, she pressed a kiss to his cheek, then stood. “Have fun, Seb.”

\--------------------

_Stephanie looked around the room she was in, recognizing it immediately. If they had gotten nothing else right in the movie, the appearance of the faux-hospital room Steve woke up in had been spot on. The lower half of the walls were dull army green, with cream on the top half. He laid on a bed that couldn’t have been comfortable, but he slept peacefully. The radio played a baseball game from 1941._

_Walking around the room, she took everything in. But she couldn’t focus on the decor, instead, she wandered over to the man on the bed. He was so tall his feet hung over the edge, his shoulders almost too wide for the small twin mattress. Seeing him this way, she figured out he was a hell of a lot larger than she’d realized from her previous visions. Moving closer, she looked down at his sleeping form, watching his chest rise and fall with each breath. If she hadn’t been so enamored with Bucky, she would definitely think that he was one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever seen. Okay, he was still one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever seen, even if there was no sexual attraction._

_The differences between him and Chris were minimal. Steve’s hair was naturally dirty blonde, but he had the same brilliant blue eyes that Chris had, at least from what she’d seen in previous visions. He was taller by at least two or three inches, and probably had a good fifty pounds of muscle more than Chris did at his largest. With barely any fat on him, she could see every single indentation of his chest and stomach muscles through the thin material of his shirt._

_As she leaned forward, his eyes popped open and she gasped but didn’t move. His eyes moved around, almost as if he were trying to figure out what was going on. When he spoke, his voice came out hoarse from disuse. “Who’s there?” Fuck, could he feel her too? Stepping back, she watched as he sat up, running a hand through his hair, looking straight at her. No. No fucking way. So far, in her visions of the present, only Bucky had noticed she was there. But then again, the only present vision of Steve that she had was when he was still frozen in the Arctic._

_Looking around, Steve couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched. When he heard the sounds of a baseball game on the radio, he listened, tensing when he realized it was one that he and Bucky had gone to together. “Whoever’s there, you aren’t going to be able to trick me. I may have been born on a Thursday, but it wasn’t last Thursday.” As he stood, he swayed slightly, stomach growling extremely loudly. Fuck, he was starving. But still, he continued searching for the eyes he felt on him. “Damn it, show yourself.”_

_The door opened and a pretty woman walked it, attempting to fit in with the 1940s theme of the room, but failing miserably. So many things about her outfit were wrong. Her hair, the padded bra, even the lipstick was a shade that didn’t exist back then. She gave him a warm smile. “Captain Rogers, it’s good to have you back with us.”_

_Steve looked her up and down, then dismissed her as insignificant before turning his attention back to the spot where he could feel someone’s gaze on him. But when he spoke, it was to the woman. “Who are you?”_

_“Sir, I’m…”_

_Stephanie reached out, curious if by touching him he would be able to feel her stronger. Bucky seemed to know when she was closer, even though he couldn’t feel her touch. Maybe Steve would be the same. But when she touched his chest, he didn’t appear to notice anything more than he had before._

_“Fuck this,” Steve swore, turning back to the door. “Who the fuck are you? Where the fuck am I?”_

_“Sir…”_

_Striding toward the door, he hovered over her, trying to intimidate her into moving. While he didn’t have any qualms about hitting a woman if she attacked him first, his mother had raised him to not strike a defenseless person, no matter their gender. Even now, he would only hit a woman if he felt his life was in danger. He was strong enough to subdue them in other ways without resorting to violence. “Let. Me. Out.”_

_“Sir, I can’t do that,” she stated softly._

_Knowing he wasn’t willing to use force to get her to move, he turned and listened closely. The serum had enhanced quite a few of his abilities, hearing was one of them. When all he heard was the sound of footsteps on the concrete outside of the room, he knew this was all fake. Letting out a low laugh, he looked at the girl. “You should have put on a game that I haven’t already heard.” Then he ran at the wall, lowering his shoulder to smash through the thin plywood._

_As the woman pressed against her ear and spoke, Stephanie stared at the hole in the wall. Yes, it was only plywood, but it still couldn’t have felt good to do that. But of course, she knew that Steve did stupid stuff like that all the time. For example, jumping out of airplanes without a parachute._

_She sat down on the bed, not willing to chase after him. That was something she had never tested with these visions… whether or not she could move through them as quickly as she could in the past and future ones. Granted, in those, she wasn’t actually in them, just viewing them like a movie. Closing her eyes, she chanted over and over again, “Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.”_

\--------------------

Sitting up in bed, she rubbed her eyes. God, now she was even more exhausted. Visions of the present always took it out of her, making her feel twice as tired as she had been before going to sleep. The only reason she could think of having it was that she’d been thinking about Steve and how she hadn’t seen him in a vision for a while. Although, getting to actually see him in the present was pretty cool.

Both him and Bucky were about the same height, Steve was just a little wider in the shoulders. Being that close to him, being able to feel how much larger he was than her, it made her realize that even though he would have normally been intimidating, it was hard to be scared of someone she’d seen rescuing a kitten from an alley. She couldn’t remember what he’d named that little orange cat, but she vaguely remembered it being something that made no sense. Something that started with the letter G. That little thing had loved Steve to death, moving in with him and Bucky after his mom had died. It didn’t like Bucky so much, but Steve had been its favorite person.

Knowing what a soft heart he had, that made it impossible to view him as anything other than a sweetheart. She knew he could be a badass, but he was still just her Steve. The same kid who never backed down from bullies. The same kid that wept when he thought his best friend was dead.

Laying back down in bed, she closed her eyes. Hopefully, she could get a few hours of uninterrupted rest before she had to be up in the morning. Maybe, just maybe, she could skip having any visions at all. As much as she loved having them, the good ones at least, she needed a break. But she couldn’t control them, all she could do was hope and pray that she could get some sleep.


	7. What's Past is Past

2014

Stephanie got home after spending several hours at the tattoo parlor, going into the bathroom to rub balm onto it like the artist had told her to. Staring at it in the mirror, she smiled. Her left shoulder had been the perfect place to get it, to remind her of Bucky. It was the only one she had, and the only one she would probably ever get, but it brought her closer to him and that was all she wanted.

After taking care of it, she went into her bedroom and climbed into bed. They were between movies for a while, so she had no reason to spend time with her boys. While they worked on other projects, all she did was work with her grandfather on comic stories. It was a good life, one that she loved, but it wasn’t as fulfilling as when she got to spend time working on the movie set. Closing her eyes, she kept her mind purposefully clear, not wanting another present vision.

\--------------------

_ Sitting on a laboratory bed, Bucky raised his flesh arm and ran his fingers through his hair. He avoided looking at where his left arm used to be, not wanting to see the metal stump that had been covered with a black silicone cap to keep what was left covered. As much as he wanted to be angry at Tony for what he’d done, he understood. After all, he had killed his parents, even if he was the Soldier at the time. Looking over at Steve, he frowned at the anxious look on his friend’s face. “Smile, Steve. I’m gonna be fixed.” _

_ “You’re not broken, Buck,” he argued, sighing heavily.  _

_ “Yes. I am.” Looking over, he watched Shuri puttering around, humming as she moved gracefully from place to place, much like a dancer. “I need to do this, Stevie. I can’t be around you and the others if at any moment I can become… him again. He’s too dangerous.” _

_ “Are you sure?” _

_ Turning back to his friend, he nodded solemnly. “Absolutely. I don’t want to hurt anyone ever again. I need this. Please don’t try to convince me otherwise.” _

_ “Fuck,” Steve looked down at the ground to hide the sudden influx of wetness to his eyes. Lifting his hand, he rubbed them roughly, then dragged his fingers through his hair. “I'm gonna miss you. Fuck, I just got you back, now I feel like I’m losing you all over again.” _

_ Sliding off the bed, he walked over to Steve and slung his arm around his shoulders. “You’re not losing me, I’m going to be right here. If shit hits the fan Shuri can always wake me up early.” Squeezing tight, he released Steve and turned to face him, moving his hand to Steve’s bicep. “Where will you guys be?” _

_ “Rooting out the remaining HYDRA agents. I know they’re still out there. Even though the government wants to control us, I’m not letting them gain another foothold anywhere if I can help it.” Lifting his own hand, he laid it over Bucky’s and smiled. “We’ll check in every couple of weeks with T’Challa, keep him updated on our progress, let him know we’re still alive, and…” _

_ “And check up on me?” Bucky asked, the side of his mouth quirking up. “I’ll be fine.” _

_ “I know, I know.” Steve shook his head ruefully, chuckling lightly. “I’m not worried about you, I just… I don’t like leaving you here alone.” _

_ Changing the subject, Bucky asked, “What are you going to do about Tony?” _

_ “If he calls, we’ll be there. But for now, we’ll do our best to avoid him and Ross.” _

_ “And Fury?” _

_ Steve laughed as Shuri walked over to them. “Fury, Hill, and Coulson are still in hiding, have been since the helicarrier incident.” When Bucky opened his mouth to apologize, he held up a hand. “Not your fault. They’re going to be working with us to get rid of the remnants of HYDRA.” _

_ Shuri laid a hand on Bucky’s arm. “We’re ready for you.” _

_ “I’m scared,” he muttered, admitting to the fear he’d been trying to contain. “What if…” _

_ “No what-ifs, Bucky.” Steve pulled him into a tight hug, holding on for a second longer than he would normally before releasing him. “I’m scared too. Scared of being on the run from the government, scared that something will happen and I won’t be able to stop it because I don’t have the same resources anymore. Shit, I feel like all I am anymore is scared. But the one thing I’m not worried about is you. You’re in good hands here. And ya know, I’m with you till the end of the line, no matter when that is.” _

_ “Punk,” Bucky said through a smile. _

_ “Jerk.” Steve pulled him into another quick hug. _

_ Bucky climbed into the stasis pod, nodding at Shuri who pressed a button and the lid closed. When she pressed another one, his eyes fluttered closed. Steve looked at the beautiful teenage girl who muttered to herself as she pressed some more buttons. “How long do you think it will take to devise a way to remove his programming?” _

_ “Six months, a year?” Shrugging, Shuri turned toward Steve. “I’ve been in contact with Dr. Strange, he knows more about the brain than I do. Together, we should be able to figure this out. And if it takes too long, we’ll take him out of stasis. I’m not leaving him in there longer than a year, not after all he’s been through.” _

\--------------------

_ T’Challa looked at his sister, rubbing the space between his eyebrows with a finger. “Don’t try to explain it again, I already have a headache. Just tell me, will he be… himself after you complete the procedure?” _

_ “I believe so.” _

_ “You believe so?” He groaned, not liking the direction her words took. “I need more than maybe.” _

_ Shuri just pushed past him, heading over to the pod. “That is not up to me, brother. Bucky deserves to choose his destiny, not us.” Pressing a button, a hiss emanated from the pod as the pressure released, then the lid lifted. _

_ Bucky slowly drifted to consciousness, hearing Shuri and T’Challa’s voices as they argued softly. Groaning, he lifted his hand and swiped it over his face. “How long?” he asked, voice raspy. _

_ “Eleven months, six days, four hours, and fifteen minutes,” Shuri said with a grin. _

_ That made Bucky laugh loudly as T’Challa helped him out of the pod. “Down to the minute, kid? Really?” _

_ “Made you smile, didn’t it?” she replied cheekily. After her brother had helped him to the chair where the machine sat, she stepped in front of him. “I’ve come up with a potential fix.” _

_ “I figured that out when you woke me up.” Then he realized what she said. “Potential? What exactly does that mean?” _

_ “There is a 63.2% chance of success,” she admitted softly, looking over at her brother who nodded to offer his support. _

_ “That’s not very high.” _

_ “We have - Dr. Strange and myself - been discussing this for quite some time. Using a modified version of the code developed by Tony when he created Ultron, I’ve devised a way to remove the codeword programming, hopefully without accidentally removing anything else.” Shuri swallowed hard, turning back to Bucky. “It’s up to you, Bucky, but we think this will work. It’s the only solution we’ve been able to come up with.” _

_ Knowing that it was most likely his only chance at having a normal life, of being able to be around his friends again without having to worry about becoming the Soldier again and hurting one of them, he didn’t have any other options. “Fine, let’s do it.” _

_ Shuri pulled down a metal hat looking thing from behind him, setting it on top of his head. “This shouldn’t hurt,” she said softly, then went to work. _

_ The entire time she was tapping away at the keyboard, muttering to herself, Bucky couldn’t help but think about what he’d left behind. The people he’d lost, the friend who was out there fighting HYDRA without him. God, just thinking about Steve made him regret everything he’d done in the last seventy years. If it weren’t for him, the team would still be together. Tony wouldn’t have tried to kill him, making Steve leave the only family he’d known since crashing in the Arctic. _

_ “All done,” she chirped. _

_ “That's it?" His eyebrows raised. Sighing, he asked, "You really think it will work, Shuri?” _

_ “I do.” Shuri reached into her pocket, pulling out a piece of paper from her pocket. “I’ve been practicing my Russian pronunciation, so I should be able to…” _

_ “Not without guards present. And you’ll need to tie me down,” he interrupted. _

_ “We don’t need…” _

_ “Yes. You do.” He looked over at T’Challa, knowing that he would be the more reasonable of the two siblings. “If it didn’t work, the Soldier is extremely dangerous. If I turn into him, I need you to… You’ll need to…” _

_ “Worry not, I will take care of it,” T’Challa agreed solemnly. _

_ Glaring at them, Shuri crossed her arms over her chest. “You will not!! I have a tranquilizer that will knock him out. You can administer that. There will be no… taking care of it in my lab.” _

_ “Fine,” Bucky acknowledged. “Now, tie me down.” _

_ Once that had been taken care of, Shuri unfolded the note and read the first word,  _ “ Zhelaniye.”

_ Gritting his teeth, Bucky groaned. “Fuck, I don’t know if I can do this.” _

_ She stepped forward and laid a hand on his arm. “You can do this, Bucky. You are stronger than you know.” _

_ Glancing over at T’Challa who nodded, he grimaced. “Okay.” _

_As she said the remaining words, he had a pensive and scared look on his face the entire time._ “Semnadtsat, rzhaviy, rasvet, pech, devyat, dobroserdechniy, vozvrasheniye na rodinu, odin, gruzovoy vagon.” _When she finished, Shuri looked at Bucky who’s eyes were screwed so tightly shut that his forehead crinkled up. She didn’t say anything, just let him be while he sat there, waiting for something she hoped wouldn’t happen._

_ After several minutes, Bucky calmed down and opened his eyes. His voice held a note of awe, “I’m still me.” _

_ “It worked, brother. It worked.” Shuri jumped up and down, clapping her hands excitedly. Without unhooking him, she flung herself at Bucky, wrapping her own arms around his neck. “It worked.” _

_ “Yeah, kid, it did.” Once he was free, he stood up and pulled her against him with his one good arm, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Thanks, Shuri. I owe you my life.” _

\--------------------

_ At the bar, Bucky watched as Peggy walked away, shaking his head. “I’m invisible.” _

_ “It’s not that, Buck.” Steve chuckled, his eyes following the gorgeous woman in the red dress. “We’re just… She and I…” He sighed, admitting, “I’ve only got eyes for one woman, now I’m going to see if she wants to dance with me.” _

_ As he followed her away from the bar to the dance floor, a petite blonde woman walked toward Bucky, her green eyes capturing his. But when his eyes traveled down her thin frame, over the soft swell of her breasts, down to the subtle curve of her hips, he gulped. The tight green dress she wore just accentuated her body, making his brain short-circuit. _

_ “Hey there, soldier,” she said, her husky voice slightly amused. Swaying her hips seductively, she closed the gap between them and laid one hand on his chest, lifting the other to run her fingers over his collar. “Now that your friend is gone, how do you feel about showing a girl a good time?” _

_ “Me?” he murmured, unsure why she would be talking to him, instead of chasing after Steve like all the other women seemed to do. _

_ “Honey, blondie is cute, but he reminds me too much of my brother. Besides,” she gave him a soft smile, “you are much more my type.” Standing on her toes, she pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. “I’m not normally this forward, but I’ve been watching you since you guys got here and I would really like to take you to bed.” _

_ Settling his hands on her waist, he informed her softly, “Name’s Bucky.” _

_ “Claire.” She wiggled her hips against his, grinning when she felt him stirring in his pants. “What do you say we get out of here?” _

_ Hands sliding down to her ass, he pulled her tighter against him, groaning slightly. “Let me go tell Steve I’m leaving.” Reluctantly, he released her and started heading toward the dance floor. Looking back, he gave her a cocksure grin. “Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back.” _

_ Walking away from the bar area, he looked around for his friend, grinning when he saw him making eyes at Peggy who had the same dreamy expression on her face as they danced. Heading over their way, he cleared his throat then said, “Hey punk, I’m leaving.” _

_ Steve looked over at Bucky, then past him at the pretty blonde at the bar. Grinning, he ribbed, “Guess you’re not so invisible after all.” _

_ “Shut it, punk,” Bucky replied through a laugh. _

_ “Jerk.” _

_ As Bucky walked away, Peggy lifted a hand and turned Steve’s face back to her. “Getting out of here sounds like a good idea.” _

_ Pulling her closer, he brushed the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “Wouldn’t want to disappoint the most beautiful woman in the room.” _

_ Bucky followed Claire into her apartment, shutting the door behind him. When he did, she turned and flung herself at him, arms wrapping around his neck as she kissed him passionately. Her hands drifted down to his chest, frantically trying to undo the buttons when he grabbed them and halted their movement. Pulling back, he sounded amused as he said, “Calm down, doll. We’ve got all night.” _

_ Letting go of her hands, he trailed his fingers up her arms, smiling as she shivered. When they reached her face, he cupped her jaw and kissed her slowly but thoroughly. Lifting his head from hers, his hands continued their journey upward until they were on her hair and he started pulling them out one by one. “You are so gorgeous, Claire.” He dropped the first pin to the floor. “That dress of yours… fuck.” Drop. “You know, I saw you before you came over to me, from across the room where you sipped on a pink drink.” Drop. “My eyes kept gravitating over to you, wishing you were looking at me,” drop, “but I was certain you were looking at Steve.” Drop. All the pins were gone and he threaded his fingers into her hair, groaning at how soft it was. “I can’t even begin to tell you how happy it makes me that you came up to me.” _

_ Claire’s breathing started coming out faster and he hadn’t even touched her anywhere that he couldn’t out in public. But when his hands moved down to her shoulders, skimming over them to touch the flesh of her arms, she groaned loudly. He chuckled as he turned her around, using one hand to sweep her hair over one shoulder so he could nibble at her neck while unzipping her dress. As he kissed the tender flesh, he slipped his fingers under the fabric, sliding it over her shoulders until it fell to the ground in a pile. Then he undid her bra, giving it the same treatment. He wanted nothing more than to have her face him so he could feel her pressed against him, but he wanted to make this good for her. _

_ Taking a step back, he shucked off his shirt and undid his belt, removing it from his pants, before stepping back toward her so he could press his front to her back. Placing his hands on her hips, he drew them up the sides of her torso, then onto her stomach, and up to her perky breasts. Cupping them, he whispered into her ear, “A perfect handful.” Then he ran his calloused thumbs over her nipples, groaning when she reached a hand between them, rubbing his hard cock through his pants. _

_ Claire sagged against him whimpering, “Bucky, I want you. Now.” She turned in his arms, bringing both hands to his pants to work at the buttons of his fly. But he grabbed her hands again, stopping their movement. A little whine escaped before she could stop it. “Bucky, I don't want to wait anymore. Please!” _

_ He chuckled, then nodded toward the bed. “Take off your underwear, doll. I'll be right behind you.” _

_ Claire did as he asked, kicking off her shoes, then slipping her underwear down her legs before climbing onto the bed and laying down with her head against the pillow. Unabashedly, she spread her legs letting one hand drift between them to play with her engorged clit. Every soft touch brought her closer and closer to the precipice, especially when he took off his boots then pushed down his pants and underwear, hard cock jutting from between his hips. _

_ Dealing on the bed, Bucky crawled towards Claire, a soft smile on his face. Settling himself between her legs, hard cock pressed between the vee of her thighs, he leaned down and kissed her hard, one hand cupping the side of her face, the other trailing down her body to her breast where he rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, then moved it further down her torso between her legs. Slipping a hand between them, he rubbed her clit then moved his finger between her labia, slipping it inside. Pulling back from kissing her, he groaned, “Fuck, doll, you're so wet.” _

_ Her fingernails dug into his back, scratching red lines into his skin. “Please, Bucky. Now!” _

_ Grasping his cock with his hand, he lined it up with her pussy and dragged the tip over her entrance. “Fuck, doll.” Carefully, he pressed into her, moving slowly to allow her to get used to him. But when she started whimpering, fingernails digging deeper into his back, he stopped. “Are you okay, doll?” _

_ “Harder, Bucky. For the love of God, harder,” she begged. _

_ Grinning, he pulled all the way out and shoved back in as hard as he could, enjoying the gasp of pleasure she let out. Over and over, he pounded in and out of her, his breathing starting to come out uneven as he neared the peak of his own pleasure. “Come for me, doll,” he growled. “I wanna feel you come on my cock.” _

_ At his words, her pussy tightened, eyes rolling back in her head as she came, gasping out his name. A few more thrusts and he came as well, pressing his face against her shoulder as he groaned. As he laid there on top of her, his back started to hurt slightly and he chuckled. “You enjoy yourself, doll?” _

_ “God… yes!” Running her hands over his back, she stilled when he hissed softly in pain. “Did I hurt you?” _

_ “No, I’m fine,” he lied. But when she just gave him a look that said she knew he wasn’t being honest, he sighed and admitted, “I’ll be fine. You just have sharp nails.” As her face fell, he lifted a hand to her cheek and pressed a soft kill to her lips. “It felt good in the moment. I promise I enjoyed it.” Rolling to the side, he pulled her into his arms. “So, I don’t have to be anywhere until tomorrow morning. You want to wait a few minutes, then go again?” _

\--------------------

Waking feeling especially aroused, Stephanie couldn’t shake the feeling of jealousy that came over her seeing Claire with Bucky that way. This wasn’t her first vision of Bucky where he was with another woman, but it still made her feel unhappy seeing him with someone else. Her head knew that he could never be with her, living in another universe, but her heart just saw him with another woman and a little piece chipped off. 

Out of all the visions she had, these made her feel the worst. Not the saddest, those always ended with her waking up crying. With these, she always ended up feeling jealous, then guilty for feeling that way. It wasn’t fair of her to expect him to never be with anyone else when he didn’t even know she existed, or at least, he didn’t know she existed as more than a ghost.

God, she couldn’t believe she was thinking this way. Laying a hand on her face, she tried to ignore her arousal, feeling too guilty to get herself off like she normally would. Turning over, she buried her face under the blanket, screwing her eyes shut and tried to fall back asleep.


	8. Live Action Porn

2016 

Sitting on her bed, Stephanie took off her heels, rubbing her aching feet. She had just gotten home after the premiere of _Captain America: Civil War_ and was utterly exhausted. Watching that movie had been especially draining considering how much of her life she’d seen visions of Bucky and the torture he had to endure. The script had gotten it mostly correct, but if they had shown what was to actually happen during the battle between friends... it had been too much for Stan to allow into the comics, so it was definitely too much to allow in the movies. The writers had wanted to split the theater more evenly between Tony and Steve, so they tried to make both of them seem reasonable. Granted, the visions she'd had of that time were still fuzzy because they hadn't happened yet, but from what she'd seen Tony was completely in the wrong, allowing guilt to cloud his judgment. 

Even though the story hadn’t been exactly like her visions, nor like the comics, they had gotten the emotions correct. To her, that was the most important thing, the main reason she was so glad Chris and Sebastian were so good at their jobs and came to her for insight into their characters. Looking like her heroes was one thing, but actually being able to illustrate their emotions on screen another. They did it marvelously, especially Sebastian. The number of lines he had was minimal, but even with that restriction, he managed to convey so many emotions with just his eyes, something that a lot of actors couldn’t do.

Taking off her dress, she didn’t bother putting on any clothes, choosing instead to sleep naked. As she lay in bed, eyes closed, her thoughts drifted to Bucky. Ever since the first present vision of him, she’d had many others. Most of them were of him as the Winter Soldier, but since 2014, she’d had brief flashes of him going about daily life in hiding. She knew the time was coming soon where Steve would find him, but it wasn’t just yet.

There was one thing that the screenwriters also changed about his time on the run. While Bucky did spend quite a bit of time hiding and trying to regain the memories that HYDRA had stolen from him, he also lived his life. He visited museums, hung out in the park, played with dogs, and went to bars to talk to people. He always hid his arm and hand, but he didn’t hide away completely, instead choosing to try and build a real-life for himself in a new place.

\--------------------

_Stephanie stood in a hotel room where a woman sat on the bed, taking off her high heels. As she did, the bathroom door opened and Bucky stepped out, wearing a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt unbuttoned, showing off his chest but hiding his arm. When he looked at the woman, a cocky smile crossed over his face and he strutted closer, holding out his hand to her. Pulling her off the bed, he slid his metal hand behind her back, flesh hand cupping the side of her face. “Hey, sweetheart.”_

_“James,” she whimpered, placing both of her hands on his muscular chest, “are you ever going to kiss me?”_

_“Impatient little thing, aren’t we?” he murmured, chuckling lightly. Lowering his face to hers, he pressed a soft kiss to her lips, not deepening like he knew she wanted. As he did, he felt his ghost watching, her feelings bouncing all over the place, but mostly seeming confused. Not wanting her to feel bad, he pulled back from his date and darted his eyes around the room until he felt her presence. When he felt her over on the other side of the room, he smiled in her direction. “Hey, doll.”_

_“Doll?” she questioned, sounding confused._

_“Don’t worry about it, Soph.” He trailed a hand down her hair, still looking over at where his ghost watched from. “What do you want, doll?”_

_Stephanie moved closer to the bed, considering her options. She knew that waking up from these visions was nearly impossible unless something woke her up, so there were really only two choices. Either she could watch him with another woman, or she could try to impress upon him that she didn’t want to. The thought of him with someone else made her feel strange, almost as if she were jealous. But at the same time, it wasn’t fair of her to stop him from having relations with someone else. So she tried to think of what watching him would be like. Of what seeing his hard cock fucking a woman would be like. God, the thought turned her on. Even though she wished it were her, the idea of seeing him with another woman just increased her arousal._

_Bucky tried to concentrate on her emotions, while at the same time trying to keep Sophia happy. This wasn’t the first time he’d been with a woman while on the run in Romania, but he tried to stick with tourists, women he wouldn’t see more than once or twice before they left. It made it easier to keep a low profile._

_His ghost still felt confused, but he could feel her arousal. Drifting his hand further down Sophia’s back, he rested it on her ass, pulling her more fully against him so she could feel his hard cock pressing against her. As she moaned, the ghost’s arousal increased, her confusion melting away into a feeling of desire and acceptance. So he moved his hands to Sophia’s shoulders, slipped his fingers under the straps of her dress, and lowered them down her arms, slowly exposing her body. His cock grew harder as he thought of his ghost watching, and at the fact that Sophia wasn’t wearing any underwear._

_When her dress fell to the floor, pooling around her feet, Sophia’s hands drifted down Bucky’s chest to his pants, undoing them and pushing them to the ground as she sank down with them. Bucky lifted his feet one at a time, freeing them from his pants and underwear. Sophia looked up at him, a smile on her face. “I want to suck your cock, James. May I?”_

_Bucky felt a spike of pleasure surge through his ghost, so he looked down at the beautiful woman on her knees, moving his flesh hand to the side of her face, threading his fingers into her blonde hair. While she was gorgeous, his mind was on thoughts of his ghost, wondering what she looked like. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.” Her hand grasped his cock, mouth opening and sinking down onto his cock, moaning as she did. His eyes drifted to where his ghost stood, smiling at her. Maybe he could find a way to make this work for all of them… himself, Sophia, and his ghost._

_As Sophia sucked on his cock, bobbing her head up and down, he groaned, tightening his fingers in her hair. “God, doll, your lips feel so good wrapped around my cock.”_

_Stephanie gasped, feeling her arousal peak, knowing he was talking directly to her. What she wouldn’t give to be that girl, on her knees in front of him, lips wrapped around his hard cock. When he talked to the girl he was with, he used her name or sweetheart. But as his eyes met hers, even though he couldn’t see her, he used doll. Was he imagining that she was the one sucking his cock? Was he pretending that it was her?_

_The arousal of his ghost kept growing, which made him grow impossibly harder. His metal hand threaded through Sophia’s hair, his eyes still on the spot by the bed where she stood. “You gonna make me come, doll? Fuck, your mouth feels so good.” Bucky held Sophia’s head in place gently, moving his hips forward and backward, never going too deep, just enjoying the sensations of her sucking as he fucked her mouth. But even though he could go multiple times in a night, he didn’t want to come yet, no matter how good it felt. Pulling her off his cock, he placed a flesh finger under her chin and looked down, not wanting to completely ignore her for his incorporeal visitor. “Sophia, why don’t you get on the bed? Hands and knees.” He grinned. “I want to fuck you… hard.”_

_“God, James,” she groaned, climbing unsteadily to her feet. Before heading over to the bed, she pressed her lips to his, sighing as he deepened the kiss, tongue dancing against hers. His hands gripped her hips, holding her in place when she tried to wiggle against him. Pulling back, she grinned. “I thought you wanted to fuck me.”_

_Using his strength, he turned her around and smacked her ass lightly. “Bed. Now.” As she did as he asked, crawling onto the bed on her hands and knees, he glanced over to where his ghost stood, sending a questioning look her way. When he felt nothing but arousal coming from her, the corner of his mouth quirked up and he winked at her. “Doll, I’m looking forward to sinking my cock into your tight pussy.” Another spike of arousal and he moved onto the bed, kneeling behind Sophia, tracing his hand over the side of her ass. Trailing a finger down one cheek, he slipped it between her legs and between her labia, groaning when he felt how wet she was._

_Grasping his cock, he lined it up with her entrance, dragging the head along her pussy. “Do you want this, sweetheart?” he crooned, making sure to concentrate fully on the woman on the bed. “Do you want me to fuck you?”_

_Sophia looked over her shoulder, pupils blown out with lust. “YES!!” she exclaimed, thrusting her hips back, impaling herself on his cock. “Fuuuuck,” she groaned, pussy fluttering with micro-orgasms. “Now, James. Fuck me. Now!”_

_Holding her hips with his hands, he withdrew from her, thrusting back in hard. When he did it again, he looked over at where the spikes of lust came from. “Fuck, doll. You’re so wet, so tight. God, your pussy keeps clenching down on me.” He started moving faster, fucking Sophia harder and harder. “Are you going to come on my cock, doll?”_

_“Fuck,” Sophia moaned, pussy already beginning to tighten._

_Stephanie watched him fuck the woman, feeling the beginnings of an orgasm tightening low in her belly. Even though she couldn’t touch herself, just seeing him give another woman pleasure gave her the chance to imagine him doing the same to her. His eyes were still trained on where she stood and she couldn’t look away. The unabashed lust on his face made her desperate to touch him, desperate to sink down on his cock, feel him inside of her. But she didn’t want to be in the same position as the woman. She wanted to see him face to face, be able to see him as he fucked her._

_Bucky started moving faster and harder, hips moving erratically as his orgasm approached. He could feel Sophia clenching on his cock, so he leaned over her, moving a hand between her legs and rubbing her clit. But still, he kept his eyes on the spot where his ghost stood. “Come for me, doll. Come on my cock.”_

_“FUCK!!” Sophia screamed, pussy vibrating as it clenched and unclenched rhythmically._

_He thrust into her once more, before holding tight and coming deep within her. Pulling his softening cock out, he turned his attention back to the woman trembling on the bed, placing a kiss on her back. “Lay down, sweetheart. I’ll go get a towel to clean you up.” Climbing off the bed, he looked at the ghost and nodded in the direction of the bathroom, hoping she would follow._

_Stephanie cursed at her inability to touch herself, her arousal still vibrating through her. But when he walked into the bathroom, she followed close behind, groaning when he shut the door. She moved closer to him, reaching up and laying an incorporeal hand on his face. It really sucked that she couldn’t feel him, that he couldn’t feel her. When he sighed, closing his eyes for a second, she imagined that he could tell she was touching him, even though she knew that was impossible._

_Bucky could feel how close she was, and god, all he wanted was to draw her into his arms. He felt guilty about Sophia, knowing he should have paid more attention to the woman in his bed, but the emotions he had toward his ghost tended to override any logical thought every time he noticed her presence. “Hey, doll,” he said softly. “I’ve missed you.” Smiling slightly, he leaned against the counter, making sure to keep his voice low enough that Sophia wouldn’t hear him. “When you’re here, those are some of my best days. The last couple of years have been pretty tough, but the times you show up, I feel… I don’t know how to put it into words, but your presence is soothing.” When he felt her disbelief, he chuckled. “Maybe not tonight, but it usually is.”_

_Picking up a washcloth, he turned on the faucet and ran it under the water. When he shut it off, he leaned heavily on the granite, sighing. “I wish you were real. I know, I shouldn’t think that way, but... “ Shaking his head, he closed his eyes, cursing his desires. Feeling this way for something that didn’t exist outside of his imagination - because on one else seemed to notice her - was crazy. “Fuck, I sound insane. But when I was with her… god, all I could think about was you.”_

\--------------------

Rolling over in bed, Stephanie picked up her phone, grimacing when she saw that she had a text message. She didn’t even look to see who it was from, just turned the phone over and set it back down. Rubbing her eyes, she groaned. Seeing Bucky fuck that woman was like watching porn, but hotter. Even though she felt envious of the other woman, his eyes had been on her the other time, and he’d even admitted to thinking about her.

Slipping one hand between her naked thighs, she touched her aching clit, moaning at how wet she was. God, she had never felt this wet before. Not by herself, and definitely not with another person. Given how close she had been during her vision, she knew it wouldn’t take much to come.

Rubbing lightly, she thought back to what she had seen, but imaging that she was the one he had been fucking. Imagined his cock thrusting in and out of her, fucking her hard. God, she was so close. “Bucky,” she moaned, pussy clenching as she did. Sliding two fingers inside of herself, she curled them up to rub her g-spot while her thumb rubbed her clit. Closing her eyes, she imagined Bucky was there doing it to her, his metal fingers curled up inside of her. 

“God,” she groaned, “just like that.” Groaning, she started rubbing faster, her hips thrusting against her hand. “Fuck, Bucky… Yes, god yes…” The closer her orgasm got, the louder her moans got. Thank god she was home alone. If she had been on set, in her trailer, with one of her boys on the couch… she wouldn’t have been able to do this. Hips moving faster, her breathing became ragged and as her orgasm hit her, she yelled out, “BUCKY!!” Pressing her fingers deeper inside of herself, she rode out the waves of pleasure, body shaking.

When it finished, she pulled her fingers out and laid there, spent. If there was a way for her to really be with Bucky, at that moment in time she would have taken it. Just thinking of him made her come harder than she had in longer than she could remember. As she looked at the ceiling, she sighed. “I wish I were really there too, Bucky.”


	9. Fuck That's Hot

2017 

_When Stephanie opened her eyes, she was standing in a bedroom that had little to no personal effects. There was a bed with a bland blue cover, a pair of nightstands, and a dresser, no other furniture. She saw a lump underneath the comforter but ignored it as she looked around. The only other thing she could find was a single framed picture, depicting Steve with his arm thrown around Bucky's shoulders, both of them in military uniforms and laughing. Moving closer to it, she recognized exactly when it was taken. She’d see that particular vision a few times. It was taken at the bar when Steve asked Bucky if he was willing to follow Captain America and Bucky said no, he’d follow the little guy from Brooklyn that never backed down from a fight._

_Looking down at her hands, she saw that she was transparent again. Every time she had one of these visions, the confusion about what they meant came along with it. She’d gotten used to both the visions and the confusion, choosing instead to try and just enjoy them for what they were. Her grandfather still didn’t know how she felt like she was there, nor had she told them how Bucky and Steve seemed to realize that she was there. Steve only noticed her presence, but Bucky was able to discern information about her that made her just a little bit uncomfortable. He shouldn’t have been able to know anything about her, but he did. The last time she had seen him in a present vision, he'd been having sex and noticed she was there, choosing instead to pretend that she was the one he was fucking. She was beginning to question whether these were really visions, or just wish fulfillment._

_Walking over to the bed, her eyes darted down to the lump on the bed. With his shaggy dark brown hair and worry lines smoothed out, Bucky looked much younger than he actually was. Or at least, he looked younger than the physical age of his body. She reached out, wanting to run her fingers over the scar on his left cheek, but just like every other time when she touched him, she felt nothing._

_When Bucky's eyes popped open and she took a step back, heart pounding in her chest. She watched as his eyes darted around, searching for the source of the intrusion. It normally didn't take him very long before he realized it was her, not that she visited him that many times in the present, just enough to get used to being confused every time she did. When his blue gaze moved toward her, stopping on exactly where she stood, his mouth curved up into a cocky grin and she knew he realized it was her._

_"Hey, doll. I've missed my little ghost." Bucky let the huskiness of his voice first thing in the morning help his cause. The last time his ghost had visited, he'd been with another woman and he’d been able to feel her arousal at seeing him that way. The thought of her watching turned him on, making his morning wood harder than usual. Reaching under the covers, he stroked himself lightly over top of his boxers._

_He thanked whatever god would listen to him that the ghost didn't feel young to him. That was the only thing he couldn't countenance, doing anything with anyone that was under the age of legal adulthood. Besides, he was old as fuck, he didn't need some teenager watching him get off._ _Still feeling her terror, he smiled a little bigger trying to calm her down, and pushed the cover off of his hips and over to the side of the bed, letting his tented boxers do the talking for him. But still, he said softly, "Calm down, doll, it's just me. No one else is here, it's just you... and me."_

_His hand moved back on top of his boxers gently stroking his hard cock through the silky material of his boxers. Every time his thumb grazed over the tip, he moaned, thinking about what it would be like if he could see her... if he could feel her do to him what he did to himself._

_Stephanie's heart slowed as she watched him, her breath coming out in soft little gasps every time a sound escaped his lips. Almost as if of their own free will, her feet moved her closer to the bed until she stood only a couple of feet away from him. Her gaze traveled over the sensuous curve of his lips, to the hard planes of his chest and stomach, down to the giant tent in his underwear. Good lord, she had never seen anyone quite that big before, at least not outside of porn, and she hadn’t even truly seen his cock yet._

_Her hand drifted to the front of her body, aching to touch her throbbing clit. But just like with everything else in her visions, she couldn't feel it. She groaned in frustration, at least until Bucky lifted up his hips and pushed down the boxers, his cock jutting out hard from between his hips. Then she didn't even care that she couldn't touch herself, just seeing him like that sent a jolt of pleasure through her core._

_Bucky just laid there, letting his ghost take a good look at him as he took off his boxers and tossed them to the floor. When he felt pleasure coursing through her, his cock jumped slightly and he moaned. "Fuck, doll. What I wouldn't give to be able to…" Shaking his head he stopped that train of thought before it got any further. He was never going to get to see her in person, she was a ghost, dead. But even though he'd never get to see her physical form, the spike in arousal just made him harder._

_Letting his hand drift back to his cock, he groaned loudly when his fingers grazed over bare flesh. Fuck, he didn't think that he would last, not with her in the room with him. Stroking just the pads of his fingers over his length, he stopped at the top and rubbed his thumb over the top of his cock, wiping away the pre-cum weeping from the head, not even bothering to hide the sounds he made like he normally would._

_Leaning over, he opened up his nightstand drawer and got out the industrial size bottle of lube Natasha had bought him as a gag gift one month. He would never tell her, but it had come in handy more than once. If she could see that it was over half gone, he would get made fun of for years. Squirting some into his palm, he laid back against the bed again and moved his hand back to his cock, hissing between his teeth when the cold liquid touched his aching hardon._

_“Fuck, doll, I'd love to feel your hand stroking me,” he groaned out, his hand gliding up and down his length. Eyes fluttering shut, he tried to focus on what she was feeling, instead of looking to find something he knew he'd never be able to see. “Just thinking about you, watching me, fuck…" He had to grip his cock at the base to stop himself from coming, not wanting to end the pleasure too soon. When he started stroking again, he could feel her arousal growing and wished yet again that he could see her, feel her. “Do you like watching me stroke my cock? Do you wish it was your hand instead of mine?” Even though he knew he shouldn’t say those things, he couldn’t help himself._

_God, yes, she wanted to scream. All she wanted to do was rip off her clothes, straddle his hips, and sink down on his giant fucking cock, but she couldn't even touch herself to help ease the horniness that she felt. His hand kept moving up and down, slowly. On every upstroke, he would rub the head, then drag his hand back down all the way to the base. Stepping forward, she moved closer to him. Even though she wouldn't be able to feel anything, and neither would he, she wanted to touch him. Reaching out she laid her hand on top of his matching the strokes that he made._

_“Shit, what did you do?” Bucky gasped out, as his hips jackknifed off the bed. His hand started moving faster, the sloshing noises from the lube coming out in time with his breathing. “Fuck, doll. God, I can feel how fucking horny you are, I wish I could…” Stopping, he didn’t finish the thought. “Do you like this?” His voice was rough with need. “Do you want to see me come?”_

_Stephanie could feel her pussy starting to contract even though she was unable to touch herself. Just thinking about what he was doing, wishing that she could do it to him, turned her on more than she'd ever been before. Wanting to try something else, she moved her hand away from him, and climbed onto the bed, straddling his thighs so she could get even closer to his glorious cock. What she wouldn't give to be able to ride him, feel him thrust hard into her aching pussy._

_She stayed just far enough away that her incorporeal body would be out of reach of his hand moving up and down his cock, not that he could feel her anyway, but it made her feel a little bit better. Instead of her eyes being on his hand as he stroked, they were on his face, watching his expressions as he drew closer and closer to orgasm. Fuck the way his eyes rolled back in his head, the moans he made as he stroked himself, it was almost enough to make her come right there._

_Bucky's eyes flew open and he looked back to where she had been previously, not feeling her there anymore. When he felt her suspiciously closer, he moved his gaze forward and realized how close she must actually be. “Doll,” he groaned out. “You want to ride my cock? Fuck, I bet you would look so good bouncing up and down on me, your breasts jiggling with every movement.” His hand started moving faster and faster, unable to contain the moans that erected from the back of his throat as he did. “God... I want... Fuck!”_

_His hips jumped off the bed again and he slowed his hand, knowing that he was really close. He could feel how fucking turned on she was, it actually felt almost as if she was close to orgasm herself. His voice was hoarse as he spoke, "Fuck, doll, I wish I could watch you as you watch me. Thinking about you, watching me, imagining your hand instead of mine…" Moving his hand faster again, he knew you wouldn't be able to stop himself this time. "Fuck!!" His hips jutted off the bed as he came, cum spurting out of his cock and on his chest._

_Even though his cock was still hard, he removed his hand and stared at where he thought she must be. "Thanks, doll. That was... fun." Bucky smirked, then frowned when he realized that she was still horny. "Fuck, I wish I could help you with that. But…"_

\--------------------

A hand shook Stephanie awake, and her eyes opened to see Sebastian's beet-red face. Oh God, what did she do? He cleared his throat, running his fingers through his hair. "Uh… you were making noises, I thought you were having a nightmare... Sorry?"

Her thoughts were still on the man of her vision, and she sat up, lifting a hand and pressing it to Sebastian's scruffy cheek. As he aged, he looked more and more like Bucky every day, and at thirty-three, he was one of the most gorgeous guys she’d ever met. Threading her fingers into his hair, she pulled his face down towards her. She was so fucking horny, and even though he wasn't Bucky, he was the closest thing she had.

Pressing a kiss to his lips, she sighed and as her lips parted he deepened the kiss briefly before pulling back and pressing his forehead against hers. "Fuck, Stevie, this is a bad idea for so many reasons. The least of which is that you're like my little sister."

Falling back onto the bed, she laid a hand over her eyes and groaned. "Damn it, I'm sorry. I just…" When he sat down on the bed, she moved her hand and looked at the serious expression in his blue eyes. "As you can probably tell, I had… one of those dreams, and... I'm sorry." She reached out and squeezed his forearm, saying softly, "You know you're the brother of my heart right? I mean, I love you, but not that way."

Sebastian let out a relieved sigh. "Thank God. I mean…" He flushed and looked away again. When his eyes drifted back toward her, he had a soft smile on his face. "I love you too, but you're seriously like my little sister. I don't think I could... date you. Ever. That would just be too fucking weird." Then he chuckled and raised his eyebrows. "But if you need help finding a guy, I know lots."

Pushing herself back up to a seated position, she smacked his arm as hard as she could, laughing when he let out a pathetic "ow." Mock glaring at him, she crossed her arms over her chest. "I can find my own man, thank you very much."

"Are you sure?" He asked sarcastically. "I mean, you were having what sounded like a pretty fantastic sex dream, then you kissed me, so…"

She fell back on her pillow again, laying her arm over her eyes, groaning loudly. "I'm perfectly content being single right now. Plus, no one can match you or Chris, and since I can't have either of you because that would just be too weird to date one of my brothers, I guess I just have to suffer a life of singledom." Removing her arm, she nodded in the direction of the door. "You know, you and Chris don't have to sleep in my trailer anymore. I stopped having…" She corrected herself, "I stopped waking screaming from my nightmares a long time ago."

Standing, he headed in the direction of the door, stopping to look back with his hand on the knob. "We love you, Stevie. We're going to keep doing this until you specifically tell us not to. Now, I'm going to go back to sleep because we have a scene to film in…" He looked at her alarm clock, "three hours. And if I don't get my beauty sleep, the bags under my eyes will be the size of Texas."

“Well, we can’t have that now.”

After he had left the room, Stephanie spread her legs under her blanket, drifting a hand in between her thighs. God, her panties were soaking wet. Pressing down on the fabric, she had to lay her other hand over her mouth to stifle the moan. The last thing she needed was Sebastian coming back in, especially with her doing that. Moving her hand, she pressed her legs together and slipped her fingers under the band of her underwear, pushing it down her legs. Once she’d kicked them to the foot of her bed, she spread her legs again and moved one hand between her legs, the other over her mouth.

Every so gently, she pressed on her aching clit, rubbing softly. Her hand wasn’t going to be enough to stifle her moans. Instead, she picked up her spare pillow and pressed that over her mouth, holding it tightly in place. Then she slipped a finger in between her labia, letting the tip graze over her opening. Her pussy clenched, desperately wanting something… anything to penetrate it. So she did just that, moving her finger down to her wet pussy, sticking it in.

But it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. Removing her hand, she tossed the pillow to the side and rolled over to dig in the small nightstand drawer. She didn’t have much in the way of sex toys, but she did have a dildo that came in handy when she got too horny. Chris and Sebastian really had made it difficult for her to look at any guy and think they could be good for her. Didn’t help that Bucky lived in her dreams and visions.

Laying back on the bed, she didn’t bother with the pillow, just pressed her lips hard together as she slipped the tip of the dildo inside of her. It wasn’t anywhere close to being the same size as Bucky, but it was big enough for her to easily move it in and out of her aching pussy, bringing her closer and closer to orgasm. With her other hand, she moved it to her clit, rubbing vigorously as the dildo pounded in and out. Closing her eyes, she thought back to what she had just watched, Bucky stroking himself up and down, the way his eyes fluttered open and shut, the groans he’d made. Just thinking about him had almost been enough to make her come, picturing him while she did this… 

“Fuck,” she mumbled, trying to keep quiet. Her dildo made an obvious noise as she fucked herself, she just hoped that her couch was far enough away that Sebastian wouldn’t hear it. Her mind went back to Bucky, and as she imagined his hips arching off the bed, cum shooting out of his huge cock, she came, teeth sinking into her lower lip to hide her moans. She pressed the dildo hard inside of her, not moving it, just riding out the waves of pleasure as they came.

Once the fluttering in her pussy abated, she pulled it out, laying it on the bed next to her, and looked up at the ceiling. After a few seconds, her lower lips started to hurt and she reached up, touching the spot. Looking at her finger, she saw blood and started chuckling, forcing herself to be quiet. Fuck, she’d never come hard enough that she’d injured herself before, but there was a first time for everything.


	10. What Should I Do?

2018 

_Stephanie stood at the back of the room, taking in the situation in front of her. On a big screen, she saw a tired-looking Steve and Natasha, both looking fed up and perturbed. Sitting around a table, Bucky, Shuri, and T'Challa were talking to them. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but it seemed serious._

_Moving closer, she saw Steve look at his friend. “How are you doing, Buck?”_

_Taking a deep breath, he prepared to answer and then realized that he felt her. Again. “She's here,” he muttered._

_“Who's here?” T'Challa asked._

_“Bucky, you've got to stop talking about this.” Steve ran a hand through his shaggy hair, sighing heavily. “She doesn't exist.”_

_Shit, he had realized she was there. Since she knew she wouldn't be able to wake herself up from this vision, she just walked over to the table and stood behind him, reaching out to lay a hand on his shoulder. Neither of them could actually feel it, but it made her feel better to at least offer a semblance of support._

_The tension released from Bucky's shoulders when he felt her closer. “Oh stuff it, you've felt her too, Steve.”_

_“No, I told you I felt someone watching me, once. I never said that I felt a ghost, or whatever the hell you decided she is.”_

_“Bucky,” Natasha said softly. “Do you want us to come out there? I mean, we still have the plane T'Challa loaned us. The flight from…”_

_Holding up a hand, T’Challa shook his head. “While this line is secure, that does not preclude it from being hacked. I do not want your location broadcast for everyone to know. There are still those who desire to find where you are hiding. Besides, there are more pressing matters at hand.”_

_“T’Challa’s right,” Bucky muttered. “This wasn't what we were planning on talking about.”_

_Shuri smiled. “The remainder of the metal arm from HYDRA has been successfully removed. The metal attached to his bones was easily removed once I...”_

_“They do not wish to hear every detail, sister,” T’Challa said gently. “It is enough for them to know the last remnants of HYDRA technology have been removed from Bucky.”_

_Steve's eyes grew wide, and a toothy grin accompanied it. “That's great, Buck. You going to come join us?”_

_Shaking his head, Bucky leaned back in the chair reaching across his torso with his flesh hand to rub the stump where his metal arm used to be. “No. I'm tired, Steve. I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of being forced into wars that aren't my own. T’Challa and Shuri have given me a place to stay as long as I want, and I've got a little herd of goats I'm taking care of. I'm happy.” Shaking his head, he chuckled softly. “Well, maybe happy is the wrong word. I’m… content.” Trying to make his voice more cheerful, Bucky added, “Besides, if I'm not there maybe Tony will actually take you guys back.”_

_At the sound of his ex-friend's name, Steve's face grew hard. “If Tony ever needs me, I'll be there, but he fucked our friendship up. I'm honestly not sure I'll ever be able to trust him again after everything with the Accords and what he did to you. He tried to kill you, Bucky. I don’t know if I can forgive that.”_

_Natasha laid a hand on Steve's back, a soft smile on her face. “It doesn't matter anyway, Tony will never call us. So talking about whether or not we’ll ever be a team again is moot.”_

_Stephanie wanted to scream and rage at them, saying that no fight was worth half of humanity. That was the main reason Thanos won because they were separated. But as much as she wanted to smash their heads together, she couldn't. All she could do was feel anger and sadness, hoping that maybe Bucky might have an idea of why._

_When his apparition started to project her emotions strongly, Bucky muttered as soft as he could, “Doll? What's wrong?” But he knew she wouldn't be able to answer. Looking back up at the screen, he murmured, “I'm not worth all this, Steve.”_

_“Don't start that shit again with me. We've had this argument too many times to count.” Steve rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to hide his weariness from his friends. “Look, if Tony calls we'll be there. We’re not going to make him face any threat alone. But he's not going to call. We both made mistakes during that time, but I'm pretty sure that neither of us can forgive the other.” Forcing a smile to his face, he continued, “Anyway, we’re having too much fun being on the run from the US government. Oh, and before I forget, Sam says hi.”_

_“Tell bird breath I say hi too,” Bucky laughed lightly._

\--------------------

The sound of an incoming text message from her mother woke Stephanie up. _Grandpa's in the hospital._

Sitting up straight in bed, Stephanie had to take several deep breaths to calm herself down. She knew her mother wouldn’t say something like that unless it were serious, but she couldn’t even think about her grandfather being sick. He was getting on in years, so really, he could die at any time. She definitely wasn’t ready for him to leave her, especially when there was still so much she didn’t know about her visions.

_I’m on my way,_ she replied.

Walking into the hospital room, she sighed in relief when she saw her mother wasn’t there and that her grandfather seemed cheerful, a sketchbook in his hands. He was hooked up to an oxygen machine, the tubes connected to his nose, but other than that he didn’t seem too sick. Moving over to his bedside, she said sarcastically, “Damn it, Grandpa, you're not supposed to scare me like this. You know hospitals are bad for people your age.”

“My age?” he replied just as sarcastically. When Stan noticed her lower lip quiver, he said quickly, “I can't promise I'll be fine, Stevie. I'm 82 years old, I've lived a long life. But…”

“You're not allowed to die.” Her voice came out soft. “I still need you.”

“I have no plans on dying, but…” His words trailed off as he started coughing, the sound wet and harsh. When he could breathe a little easier, he pointed at the chair next to him. “Come, sit down. I have some things I need to tell you.”

After she sat down, Stephanie took his hand in hers, rubbing her thumb along his papery skin. “Whatever it is, it can wait until you’re healthy again.”

“No, it can’t.” Shaking his head, he took another deep breath, sagging in relief when he didn’t cough. “Last night, I had a vision that really took it out of me. It was about Thanos and what happens to their universe. I know you’ve had them too, so you know how bad it is.” Turning his head, he coughed, drawing in several wet sounding breaths before looking back over at his granddaughter. She was looking at him with such worry, but there was nothing he could do to reassure her that he would be fine. “It’s bad, Stevie. Every time I have another vision of that time, it keeps getting worse and worse.”

“Every vision I’ve had has always been the same. Sure, the dialogue changes, but the rest stays the same. Why do yours get worse, but mine stay the same?”

“I don't know, but that's not why... That's not what I want to talk about. Since I don't know how bad this is, my pneumonia I mean, there are a few things you should probably know that I should have told you years ago.”

“Don't talk like that, Grandpa. You're not dying anytime soon.” Stephanie glanced over at the door when he started coughing again, getting ready to jump out of her chair and find a nurse.

“Stevie…” His voice was serious, brokering no argument. “I get that you don't want to think about me dying, I don't want to think about me dying, but you still need to know this.”

Petulantly, she released his hand and sank back into the chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “Fine.”

Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth to explain everything, then sagged back against the pillow. Trying to tell her the truth in a way that she would understand was harder than he had thought it would be. “Go over to the table and get my briefcase.” She did, handing it to him. Opening it, he took out a portfolio and handed it to her. “Open it to the first page.”

She did and saw three old looking photos on the first page. The first picture was of her great-grandmother, Celia, with two other women. One of the women held a young child, maybe a year old, the other an infant. The women looked really familiar, but she couldn’t quite place their faces. As she studied them, she realized who they were and who they held. One of the women looked suspiciously like Winifred Barnes, the other Sarah Rogers. The other two pictures were Celia holding infants, one she assumed was Bucky, the other Steve. Looking up at Stan, her eyes grew wide. “This can’t be real.”

“It is.” He lifted a hand to his face as another coughing fit came over him. Stephanie handed him water and he drank, grateful for the cool liquid. “It's hard to explain, I didn't believe it when my mother first told me. So if you don't believe it either, I wouldn't blame you.” Taking a deep breath, he waited until she’d sat back down and looked at the photo again. “Remember when I told you that I knew the visions were real, as was the world they took place in, but I wouldn't tell you how I knew?”

“Yeah,” she said softly, her eyes focused on the children in her great-grandmother’s arms.

“Well, this is how. My mother told me stories of her best friends Winnie and Sarah, and how they had two young boys, James and Steven. She told me how James was the spitting image of his father, and as sweet as could be. Steven was sickly, but still the happiest child she'd ever met.” Taking another sip of his water, he cleared his throat. “After I woke screaming from my first vision, she told me all of this. She didn’t think it was fair to keep the truth from me. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner.”

Grabbing his hand, she squeezed lightly. “It's in the past, Grandpa, don't feel bad. I probably wouldn't have believed you anyway. And besides, you’re telling me now, that’s all that matters.”

Giving her a soft smile, he continued, “So, my mother's full name was Celia Solomon. The Solomon’s are what my mother called seers or soothsayers. They possess the ability to see into the past, present, and future of those they come into contact with, or of those who are important to their life. But, with that comes a caveat - it's only in their universe that it works. Now comes the part that you probably won't believe.”

“Grandpa, I don’t know how it could get any less believable,” she chuckled.

“Just wait, Stevie. Just wait.” She had closed the portfolio again, staring at him with such rapt attention that he got into the mode he did when telling stories. “In the late 1800s, there was a way for people to travel between universes. I don't know what it was, my mother didn't either. But, in her time there were these… Wait just a sec.” Digging into the briefcase, he pulled out a velvet bag and dumped out what looked like a large glass marble into the palm of his hand, and held it out toward her. “These. Somehow, my mother got a hold of two orbs, and because our family had been in hiding for generations, she thought that maybe if she could go to another universe things might be different. So she used one, and came here.”

“You're saying that Great-Grandma is from their universe?” Even though she'd seen the picture of Celia with Winifred and Sarah, then the others with Bucky and Steve as babies, it sounded like something straight out of science fiction.

“Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Stevie, I know this is hard to take in and doesn't seem possible, but I swear I'm telling the truth.” When she gestured for him to continue, he smiled. “She met my father, Joseph Lieber, fell in love and had children. So instead of returning home, she stayed. However, she kept the orb, kept it safely hidden away, and gave it to me on her deathbed. And now, I'm giving it to you.” He put it back into the bag and held it out to her until she took it.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“That's up to you. From what I understand, there's no longer a way to travel between universes without the use of an orb, and I doubt that there are any more. So if you were to use it, it would mean you could never come back.”

“Uh…” Stephanie played with the bag in her hands, staring at the lush fabric. This seemed like as good a time as any to tell her grandfather the thing she’d been keeping from him. Maybe he could explain it. “I guess while we’re confessing things we've kept hidden, there's something I probably should have told you a while ago.” Swallowing hard, she spoke quickly, “Bucky sees me. I mean, when I have my visions of the present and Bucky's there, he can sense my presence and how I'm feeling. The others don't, just him.”

Stan coughed again, waiting until he’d finished before taking a sip of water. “Yes, the present visions. Well... I guess I should tell you that those really aren't visions. You understand the concept of astral projection, right?” She nodded and he let out a relieved sigh. “Well, the only way I found to have a present vision is by concentrating on the person. By trying to make a vision come, that's when I've been able to see the present in their universe. Although, no one's ever noticed me in any of those. But every time I've had them, I wake exhausted, almost as if I was awake the entire time during my vision.”

“Really?” Stephanie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She’d had the same thing. Every time she’d been in a vision of the present, she’d woken feeling more tired than when she fell asleep.

“My mother explained it to me because she had these visions her whole life. While they tapered off some when she left her universe to come to ours, she would still have the visions of Sarah and Winnie, and quite often they were in the present. She's the one that explained that when you have a vision of the present, you're actually projecting your consciousness to that person, which is why it’s so exhausting. So the ones that are truly visions are either of the past or the future. When you're in the present, you're actually there, albeit incorporeally.”

Taking a moment to let it all sink in, all Stephanie could do was ask, “I've been astral projecting to another universe?”

Stan smiled. “I don't know exactly how it works, just that it does. But if Bucky can see you…” He wanted to tell her what he had seen in his visions of the future, but he couldn't do that to her. Telling her that he had seen her in that universe would force a choice on her and he wasn't willing to do that. “I don't know what it means that Bucky can see you, or feel you... but I know it's probably important.”

Opening the book back up, Stephanie stared at the picture of Celia, Winifred, Sarah, and the boys. For so many years, she’d seen what it was like for them growing up, what the war did to them, how being turned into super-soldiers made them different physically, but they still stayed the same people. The others that she’d seen in her visions - Natasha, Tony, Bruce, Clint - everyone she’d ever had a vision of, they all were affected by Thanos. Some in more permanent ways than others, but still, they all dealt with it in their own ways. The world changed with the snap, and so did Bucky and Steve. The things she’d seen in her visions of the future, the world that came after the snap, and after Bruce brought everyone back. Both times were awful, but she couldn’t help but wonder if it could be changed. If it was possible to change the outcome of what happened in their universe. Still staring at the picture, she whispered, “Do you think I can stop this?”

“Stop what?” Stan asked, curious.

Looking up, she clarified, “Do you think if I go to their universe that I can help them stop Thanos?”

“I don’t know.” He had to look away, the pain in her eyes was too hard to bear. When he had seen her in his visions of the future in their universe, he hadn’t seen what would happen to the world around them, just that she was happy. He debated with himself on what to do for several long seconds before coming to a decision he would probably regret. “I’ve… One of my more recent visions of their future had you in it.”

Looking at him confused, Stephanie tried to figure out what he was implying. “But you can’t have visions of people in this universe, that’s the one thing you always told me. The only people we have visions of are those that are somehow connected to our lives, but that they must live in that world.”

“Exactly,” he said softly.

Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. “Wait, are you saying that you saw me in a vision... over there?”

Stan reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling it closer to him so he could grasp it between both of his. “Stevie, I'm not telling you this to try and force you to go. I honestly don't know what will happen if you go to that universe. I don't know if you going will be enough to stop Thanos. All I know, and this is from a fuzzy vision of the future, is that you were happy. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen you that happy before.”

Gulping, she looked away before asking softly, “Do you think I can stop it?”

“Stevie, if anyone can get those dumbasses to listen and get back together, it’s you.” When she looked up, shocked at his cursing, he laughed. “We both know why they failed.”

“The Accords.”

“The Accords messed everything up. Tony did what he thought was best, working from a place of fear and guilt. Steve did what he thought was best, knowing that those in power should not have that much sway over those with powers like they have.” Patting her hand, he released it so he could take another sip of water to stave off a cough. “I don’t know if it will work, and if you go, you won’t be able to come back.”

“I… I need to think about it.” Standing, she held the book. “Can I… can I keep this for a little while?”

“Of course,” he replied softly. Deliberately looking at the bag, he added, “Don’t drop the orb. If it breaks, a portal will open and there is only one shot at this.”

“I love you, Grandpa.”

“I love you 3000, Stevie.”


	11. Decisions Aren't Easy

2018

Sitting on her bed, Stephanie stared at the closed photo album on her lap. She couldn’t bring herself to open it, not wanting to see the pictures it contained. The one of her great-grandmother and the women that she’d seen so many times in her visions had thrown her for a loop, making her feel like everything in her life was a lie. It seemed impossible that Celia had been from another universe, but the pictures told another story. 

Taking a deep breath, she opened the book, staring at the first page. Her fingers touched the plastic protecting the pictures, tracing lightly over the curve of Celia’s face. Turning the page over, she saw a drawing of Bucky. It wasn’t like the realistic portraits she drew but done in the comic style her grandfather preferred. It looked a lot like the future Bucky she saw in her dreams, Wakandan arm and all, but instead of being miserable, he looked happy. No, saying he looked happy would be an understatement. There was a look in his eyes that she couldn’t describe, but the toothy grin on his face made her smile as well. He was kneeling on the ground, looking up. Even though normally a comic panel showed all parties involved, this one was from the perspective of whomever he knelt in front of.

Staring at his face, she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. In all her years of watching him in visions, she’d never seen him look like that. Never seen him that happy. His eyes practically shone, the smile making his eyes crinkle up at the sides. Her grandfather hadn’t put any words with the image, but she could imagine why he was down on one knee… he had fallen in love. For some reason, that thought made her want to cry.

Closing the book, she laid it down on her nightstand and turned off the light. Maybe sleeping would help her make up her mind on what she should do. Right now, the only thing she could think was that if she went to the other universe, she would have to leave her grandfather, not to mention her mother. And what about Sebastian and Chris? They were her best friends, her brothers… she didn’t know if she could leave them behind.

\--------------------

_ Stephanie stood on a grassy plain, looking around at the gently sloping landscape. A copse of trees stood off in the distance, a small hut close to several goats bleating happily. It took a minute, but she realized where she must be… Wakanda. Instantly, she was sad she couldn’t feel the warmth of the sun on her face, nor smell the clean air. Because of its location, it was one of the few unspoiled places left on Earth. _

_ Her eyes darted around, searching for the man she knew had to be around somewhere. She’d never had a vision… an astral projection where she didn’t see someone. A figure exited out of the hut and a huge smile crossed over her face. God, he looked so good, even with the shaggy hair that she knew had to be driving him nuts. Still didn’t have his arm, but he looked almost serene. Walking over to where Bucky stood, eyes closed as he lifted his face toward the sun, she thought that he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen. _

_ When she got closer, his eyes opened as his head snapped over to where she was. A slow smile formed on his face and he drawled, “Hey, doll. I’m a little surprised you’re here two days in a row.” Running his hand through his hair, he moved it down to the shawl covering his shoulder, adjusting it to better hide his missing appendage. “I was just going to feed the goats, but they can wait for a little bit. I'd rather talk to you. Come on in.” He went back into the little hut, sitting down on the bed on the floor. When Bucky felt her enter, his smile grew even larger. He patted the bed next to him. “Sit down, doll.” _

_ Stephanie did as he asked, sitting about a foot away from him on the thin mattress. When he set his hand down on the bed with his palm facing up and just waited, she laid her hand on top of his, wishing that she could feel his calloused fingers against her skin. Wishing that for once, she could feel anything with him. Wishing that he could see her. _

_ Bucky could feel the sadness coming off of her in waves, but he couldn't quite figure out why. “I'm happy you're here,” he said softly. “You know, when you're around I feel... I feel calmer, like I used to back in the day before all this shit happened.” When her sadness grew larger, he tried again. “So, I bet you're wondering how I lost my arm. I won't go into all the sordid details, you don't want to hear that, but that day I found out that it wasn't as tough as I thought. Apparently, lasers are pretty good at cutting through metal.” _

_ He sounded so nonchalant about it, a hint of a chuckle in his voice, but she couldn't understand why he was so blasé about it. She wanted to ask him if it hurt when Tony's ray cut through the metal. She wanted to ask if he was angry at Tony for doing it, or if he understood. Actually, she didn't need to ask because she already knew the answer to that question. She knew him well enough to know that Bucky hated himself for all those things that he did when he was the Soldier, even though none of it was his fault. He probably thought he deserved it. If she could, she would have pulled him into a tight hug, rubbed his back, and told him that none of what happened was ever his fault. That Tony’s parents' deaths weren’t on him, but HYDRA. But she couldn’t say any of those things to him. She couldn’t offer him any comfort other than her presence. _

_ Sensing her distress, he sighed, not knowing what had caused that reaction. “It’s okay, doll. I hated my arm. Hated what it represented. Hated the man I became with it.” Her sadness grew and he looked over at where she sat next to him, wishing like hell he could see her, if only for a second. “Don’t be sad, sweetheart. I’m not. I feel… free for the first time in over seventy years. Steve doesn’t know this, but in 1943 I was drafted. He still thinks I enlisted because that’s what I told him I did. I couldn’t bear to tell him how desperately I wanted to do anything but go to war, because he so desperately wanted to go.” _

_ Her distress lessened a little and he smiled. “You know, I love that kid like he’s my own brother, but lying on his enlistment form - multiple times - was probably the dumbest thing he ever did.” Shaking his head, he chuckled ruefully. “Actually, no. Crashing the plane into the Arctic with him on it was the dumbest thing he ever did. Stupid ass actually thought that death was the only way to save the world. I guess it didn't occur to him he could parachute off.” _

_ When he felt a little bit of laughter seeping through, he calmed. Having his ghost be depressed was disheartening and he didn’t know how else to fix it, other than telling funny stories. But when he opened his mouth to tell another, what came out instead surprised him. “I know this is gonna sound crazy, especially since I’ve never really met you or even heard your voice, but I think I’m… I think I’m falling for you.” He felt her shock and looked straight ahead, trying to hide the fear in his eyes at what he had just admitted. “I know, falling for a ghost or spirit, or whatever you are, is… It’s crazy, but…” He leaned back against the wall, shutting his eyes and smiling ruefully. “You can’t help how you feel, doll.” _

_ All Stephanie could feel was confusion at his words. Hearing him say that was like a dream come true because if she was being honest with herself, she felt something too. In all her years of watching scenes of his life play out in her head like video clips, she had gotten to know the man behind the mask he portrayed to the rest of the world and the team. She knew how his favorite color was the pink of the sunset, but he always told people it was green. His favorite movie was  _ Wizard of Oz, _ not because it was the best or the most enjoyable, but because of how much fun Steve and him had watching it. And she knew that no matter how much he hated his arm and what HYDRA had done to him, he was still grateful to be alive. _

_ Bucky could feel her emotions bouncing all over the place, from surprise to happiness, then switching briefly to sadness before jumping right back into being happy. He felt fairly certain that the sadness was because they could never actually be together, but he wasn't sure. Hell, he didn't even know if his ghost felt the same way about him that he did for her. Maybe he was going crazy, feeling this way for something that wasn't there, but all he could do was leave his hand on the bed, palm facing up, hoping that she touched him. “I'm sorry, doll, maybe I shouldn't have told you that. But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that life is too short to hide away from your feelings, or from the truth. And the truth is that you make me smile like no one ever has. You make me feel things I wasn’t even sure I could.” _

_ Turning, Stephanie lifted the hand that wasn't on Bucky's and laid it against his cheek, wishing that she could feel him, at least once. Closing her eyes briefly she felt the choices warring inside of her. What was she supposed to do? If she came to this universe, there was a small possibility that she could have everything she’d ever dreamed of. Of course, he would have no way of knowing it was her that he professed to be falling in love with, but still, her grandfather had said that in his vision she was the happiest he'd ever seen her. But if she went, she would also be losing out on everything. Her job, her family, her friends. God, she’d be losing Chris and Sebastian, the two guys who had stood by her through everything. _

_ When her eyes opened again and she saw Bucky's blue eyes staring straight at her, she made a decision. It may not be the best decision or the right one, but she made one. Leaning forward, she pressed a soft kiss against his lips and climbed off of the bed. Even though he couldn't hear her, she whispered, “I'm falling for you too, Bucky.” _

\--------------------

Waking up in bed, she felt both depressed and happy at the choice she’d made. Rolling over, she saw that it was still early, but she knew there was no way she’d be able to fall back asleep. Instead, she climbed out of bed, taking off her nightclothes so she could put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Picking up the photo album, she sat down on the bed and opened it to the picture of Bucky again, smiling softly as she looked at his face. Hearing him say that he felt… something for her had made her want nothing more than to be with him. But at the same time, she wasn’t even sure it was possible, or that she should.  Even though both choices scared her, just for different reasons, she had made her decision. Now, all that was left was to go and tell her grandfather. Maybe he would be able to offer some advice.

At the hospital, Stephanie was relieved to see Stan sitting up in bed sipping on a cup of coffee. When she entered the room, he looked over and smiled at her, at least until he saw the serious expression on her face. After placing the photo album back into his briefcase, she sat down in the chair next to his bed. "I know what I'm going to do, Grandpa."

"That's good!" Then he saw her downcast expression. "That's not good?"

"I don't know if it's the right choice. I want to help them so much, but if I go I lose everything I have here. What if I go and I can't help them change the future? What if I go and things get worse?"

Stan reached out with his hand, waiting to respond until after she grabbed it with both of hers. "Stevie, I know I can't give you much to go on, but if you go, you will be happy. Remember how I told you that visions of the future that were all but certain are more clear?" She nodded. "Well, the vision I've had of you where you are the happiest I've ever seen you is the clearest vision I’ve ever had. I don't know if you going will help them figure out how to stop Thanos. I don't know if things will get worse, or better. The one thing I do know is that you will be happy."

"I'm going," she mumbled. Tears rolled down her cheek, that she angrily swiped away. Seeing Bucky in her latest vision had helped make up her mind, making the decision easier. In the seventeen years she'd been having visions of him, it was something she'd always dreamed of, being able to visit their world. And as much as she'd like to say the sole reason she said yes was because of Bucky, it wasn't.

Growing up with stories of heroes, then the visions that followed, she knew what it meant to be a good person. She knew what it meant to be a hero. Even Tony, who was arrogant and an asshole, was a hero. All she ever wanted in her life was to do good things, to help people. And she knew how bad it got after the snap. If she could offer any help at all, what right did she have to sit by and watch it happen?

Stan took in his granddaughter's sad expression, the fierce determination in her eyes, and the slight tremor in her hands. He couldn't figure out if this is really what she wanted, or if there was something else going on. Squeezing her hand gently, he reminded her, "You don't have to go. Their world will survive without you. Yes, it's bad. But try to remember, they do fix everything."

"I'm going," she repeated, this time stronger. "I just... I needed to say goodbye before I left. I just wish I knew what to tell Chris and Seb."

"Hmm, that's a tough one. I mean, it's up to you, but if you want to tell them the truth I will back up your story."

"The truth?" She laughed bitterly. "There's no way in hell they believe that I'm a seer descended from a woman who escaped from an alternate reality to come live in ours. Nor are they going to believe the fact that the alternate universe contains the real Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. Hell, I barely believe it and I've had the visions for years."

"Maybe you should show them," he said softly.

"Show them?"

"Have them come to the hospital. They're your best friends, if you call and tell them I'm sick, they'll come running." He rubbed his thumb on the back of her hand, trying to help her calm down a little bit. "You can use the orb here. It doesn't sound like it causes any damage, and it's only open long enough for one person to walk through. This way, they'll know where you go, and they won't worry about you when they don't hear from you."

"Grandpa, I don't know if I can leave them." Tears ran down her cheeks.

“Stevie, you are one of the strongest people I know. You'll miss them and they'll miss you, but the memory of your time together, of your friendship, will always be there.” He opened his arms. “Come here.” When she did, giving him a soft hug, he rubbed her back. “I know it's hard, but try not to think about what you're losing but instead think about what you're gaining.” Pushing her back, he smiled. “Now, text your boys and tell them to come here in a few days. Then you're going to go home and gather up whatever you want to take with you. Travel light, I'm pretty sure Tony will buy you whatever you need when you get there. So just bring things that you think are important.”

“Why would Tony do anything to help me?”

“I know that the things you’ve seen about Tony have all been bad.” When she opened her mouth to argue, he silenced her with a look. “I know him much better than you do since most of your visions revolve around Bucky and Steve. And yes, I know that the Accords were a bad idea and that his pushing it on the rest of the team is the main reason they broke apart. I agree that he messed up, but you haven’t seen the aftereffects of what the team breaking up did to him, I have.”

“Okay, okay,” she said sarcastically. “I won’t give him too much grief when I finally do meet him. But that doesn’t answer why he would be willing to give me anything.”

“Because deep down, Tony is a good guy. And I’d be willing to be the second you get there he’ll adopt you like he tends to do with everyone else.” When Stephanie’s eyebrows raised and her lips pursed, he chuckled, then coughed. “Okay, maybe it will take more time than that before he treats you like one of the family, but that’s neither here nor there. All of the Avengers are good people, you will be loved by all of them.”

“Did you see that?” she asked quietly.

“No, but I know you, Stevie. Everyone loves you, they will too.” He smiled. “Now, text your boys.”

“I love you, Grandpa.”

“I love you too Stevie.”

Taking out her phone, she sent a group text to Chris and Sebastian.  _ Grandpa's in the hospital.  _

Seb: _ How bad? _

Chris: _ When you do you need me there? _

Seb: _ What Chris said. We're here for you, sweetheart. _

She laughed lightly, causing her grandfather to give her a look that she waved off.  _ Can you guys be here Friday? Is that too soon? I know you’re busy, so if you can’t come, I understand. _

Chris:  _ Stevie, you're our sister, we would cancel all our plans for you. _

Seb: _ Again, what Chris said. Do you need us there earlier? _

God, she loved those boys.  _ Friday is fine. Grandpa is…  _ She looked at Stan. "What reason do I give them for not coming until Friday?"

"Tell them the doctor said no visitors for a couple of days."

She finished the text.  _...not allowed visitors yet.  _ She quickly sent another.  _ I love you guys. _

Chris: _ Love you too, kid. Be there Friday. _

Seb: _ With bells on. And in case you didn’t already know it, I love you too, Stevie. _


	12. Goodbye Isn't The End

2018 

Walking into the hospital, Stephanie had two bags with her - a backpack filled with notebooks and portfolios, the most important and treasured of her memories from her visions, and a small duffel with enough clothes for a few days. It had taken her most of the three days to decide what to take, going through each one of her notebooks, all of her sketchbooks, and every single portfolio she had. It had been hard to narrow down what to bring, but in the end, she took the things that were important to help persuade them she knew what she was talking about, the notebooks that might help. The portfolios were filled mostly with images that would be useful or showed key moments in time from the visions she’d had, including from the future involving Thanos. However, she did allow herself a small weakness. She’d brought one portfolio filled with pages of her favorite stories, as well as the images that made her smile the most.

She stepped into her grandfather’s room, thankful he was asleep. Even though she wanted to spend as much of her remaining time with him, she was a nervous wreck. In the days since she’d made her choice, sleep had been elusive. Instead, she’d tossed and turned, not being able to stay asleep for more than an hour or two at a time. There hadn’t been any visions either, not of the past, future, or the present.

Setting her stuff down on the floor next to the chair, she sat down and looked at her phone. The boys would be landing in a couple of hours, coming straight to the hospital from the airport. She was just glad Marvel had let them out of their obligatory pre-release tour so they could visit her grandfather… and her. As she sat there, waiting for the text to see that they landed, her eyes fluttered shut and she sagged in the chair, drifting off to sleep.

\--------------------

_“Come on, Stevie,” Bucky called, running down the alley. He stopped at a door, looking back at his tiny friend. “We’re gonna miss the movie if you don’t hurry.”_

_“Bucky,” Steve wheezed, placing his hands on his knees._ “Wizard of Oz _ain’t goin’ anywhere.”_

_“You’re right, kid.” Reaching over, Bucky ruffled his younger friend’s hair. “But still, you promised that we’d go see the movie.”_

_“Not a kid,” Steve managed to gasp out. “Am twenty-two.”_

_“And I’m twenty-three. What’s yer point?” Bucky laughed, then grinned at the beautiful brunette who opened the door and stuck her head out. Grabbing the door, he pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Thanks, doll. I'll see you later for our date tonight.” Looking back at Steve, he waited until his friend had caught his breath and the corner of his mouth quirked up into a smile. “Lighten up, Stevie. We’ve got a way in and a movie to see.”_

_“Yeah, yeah.” Straightening, Steve ran a hand over his hair, trying to get it to lay flat after Bucky had messed it up. “Let’s go.”_

\--------------------

“Stevie,” a voice whispered, waking her up.

When her eyes fluttered open and she saw Sebastian, she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him tight against her. “I’ve missed you,” she mumbled.

“Missed you too, sweetheart.” He pulled her out of the chair and into a better hug, one where he didn’t have to bend over to hold her in his arms. “We should step into the hallway, Stan’s asleep.”

She pulled back far enough so that she could see he was telling the truth, then pressed her face against his chest once again. “Don’t wanna,” she muttered petulantly. “Where’s Chris?”

“He’s getting us some coffee, and a hot chocolate for you.” Running a hand down her long brown hair, Sebastian sighed. “Come on, Stevie. Let your grandpa sleep. Come talk to me for a minute.”

The way he said that sounded so much like the Bucky of her vision, she couldn’t help but hold him tighter. Sebastian was thirty-six, thirteen years older than Bucky had been when he saw _Wizard of Oz,_ so his voice was more mature, but they were still so similar it made her heart ache. She let him pry her from his arms, grab her hand, and drag her out of the hospital room and into the hallway. Once he did, she wrapped her arms around his waist again pressing her cheek against his heart.

Sebastian chuckled lightly, digging his hand into the hair at the base of her skull, the other hand rubbing circles on her back. Thank God she wasn't crying, he didn't know if he’d be able to handle that. Softly, he said, “It's okay, Stevie, we're here now. Chris and I are here.”

“Hey, kid,” a deep voice said from the side.

Stephanie turned her head, saw Chris several feet away with a drink tray on his hands, and released Sebastian. She started walking toward him slowly, and he set the drink tray down on a bench near the wall, then she ran and jumped into his arms, wrapping her own around his neck. He held her up by the thighs so she could wrap her legs around his waist, and she buried her face into the crook of his neck, the tears finally starting to fall.

Letting go with one of his hands, Chris brought it up to her back and rubbed soothingly. “Shh, it's okay, we're here.”

“Hey!” Sebastian exclaimed, trying to lighten the mood. “You didn't jump on me? I'm hurt.”

Lifting her head, her tears slowed as she eyed him up and down, tilting her head to the side. “I don't know, Seb. Chris is big and strong, I don't know if your muscles are quite big enough to hold me up.”

Sebastian held his arms out to Chris like he was asking for a child. “Hand her over.” Chris slowly passed Stephanie to him, shaking his head and chuckling as he did. Once Sebastian had her in his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist, he pretended to stagger. “Oof, you're heavy.”

She smacked him in the shoulder, smiling the whole time. “Put me down, you big galoot.” When he did, she gave both of her boys a soft look. “I'm really glad you guys could make it.”

“Well, to be honest, Marvel didn't want to let us come.” Chris reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, shuffling from side to side. “The only reason we're here is that apparently Stan called and asked them to let us.”

“Grandpa called?”

“Yeah, apparently he's healthy enough to do that but sick enough that you wanted us to come?” Chris's voice held no note of censure, just curiosity.

“It's a long story, one you're going to get to hear at least part of once Grandpa is awake.”

As soon as she finished the sentence, Stan called out from the room, “Stevie, bring Sebastian and Chris here.”

Chris picked up the drink tray and they each took their cups, then walked into the room. In turn, the boys went over to Stan and shook his hand, inquiring about his health. When Stan replied that he was feeling better, both of the guys turned to look at Stephanie, their eyebrows raised high on their foreheads.

She took a sip of her hot chocolate to hide the sudden flush on her face. “I… uh… it's hard to explain?”

“What she’s trying to say,” Stan interrupted before anyone else could comment, “is that we needed you here for a reason. Before you get mad at Stevie, I told her to use the fact that I'm sick to get you here, but I think she should be the one to tell you what's going on.”

Closing her eyes so she didn't have to see the looks on their faces, she tried to think of how to tell them the truth without them thinking she was insane. Coming to the conclusion that there was no way around it, she took another sip of her hot chocolate and then started to talk. “My great-grandmother... Fuck, this is going to sound crazy, I have a hard time believing it myself.” She took a deep breath in, blew it out slowly, then took another. “There is a universe where Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes exist and I've had visions of their world since I was thirteen. Apparently, I'm a seer, and my great-grandmother is from that universe.”

When they didn't say anything, she opened her eyes to see them staring at her in shock. Sebastian seemed to recover the quickest. “Stevie, you realize how insane that sounds right?”

“I know,” she muttered. 

Walking over to the chair she bent down and opened up her backpack, pulling out her first portfolio. Standing between the boys so they could both see, she turned to the first page that had a reasonably well-done picture of Bucky on it. It was one of the first pictures she'd ever drawn of him, so it had been done in her notebook, with words of the vision she had surrounding it. While it wasn't as good as the stuff she did now, it was very obvious who it was a picture of.

Pointing to his image, she said softly, “I drew this when I was fourteen.”

Chris sounded in awe when he spoke, “Seb, That looks just like you.”

“Yeah, he and Bucky share a lot of the same…” She started over. “They look exactly alike, except for the scars, Bucky's metal arm, and the fact that Bucky is about two inches taller and a lot more muscular.” Turning to another page in the book, she found the one she drew of Steve coming out of the sarcophagus. This one looked almost identical to Chris, except Steve was also taller and more muscular. “This one is from when I was fifteen. Let's just say, that vision sucked. I know they did a pretty good job of showing how painful the transformation was in the movie, but multiply that by around a hundred and you'd be a little closer to the actual amount of agony Steve went through.”

“Stevie,” Sebastian muttered. “This can't be... You must have... How?”

“I'll answer that one,” Stan said before he coughed. “As Stevie said, my mother was from that universe. I know, I know. It seems completely insane, implausible, crazy. But we can see visions of the past, present, and future of their world. That's how Stevie always knew so much about them, how she was able to help you with your characterization of them.”

As her grandfather spoke, Stevie knelt back on the floor next to her bag and put the portfolio away, pulling out two pictures that she'd put in sleeves with cardboard behind them to keep from getting bent. They were going away gifts for her two favorite people. Standing up, she turned to Chris first and handed him one of the images. It was something she had drawn recently - a picture of Steve on the battlefield, holding a broken shield in one arm, Mjolnir in the other. The hammer was raised to the sky, lightning coming down all around him. His hair was shaggy and he had a full beard, his uniform dark and emblemless, and he wasn't wearing his usual helmet.

“I know they haven't started filming for Endgame yet, and that they don't really know what the plan is fully yet, or at least they're not sharing. But, this is something I saw.” She watched Chris's expressions range from awe to disbelief. “I thought you would want to know that Steve had always been worthy, although worthy means something different in their universe than it does here.”

Turning to Sebastian, she gave him the second picture. It depicted Bucky with short hair, dark metal arm, and a five o'clock shadow, holding a gun in one hand and Rocket in the other, spinning in a circle. "Out of all my visions of the future, this is the only one that ever made me smile. I'm pretty sure that the Russo brothers will hate it, but if you want to see if they'll add that for some comic relief, you can tell them I did it as concept art."

"He has short hair," Sebastian said quietly.

"Yeah, I know. He hates the longer hair. Says it reminds him of HYDRA and what they did to him." Her voice grew even quieter. “I know you guys probably don’t believe me, but everything I’ve told you is true. The reason I want you here is because… is because…” Her words trailed off as she tried not to cry.

Sebastian handed his picture to Chris and pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay, sweetheart. You can tell us anything.”

She let her arms wrap around his waist, taking comfort in his lean solidness. Taking several deep breaths, she turned her head so she could look at Chris who seemed worried. “I’m leaving.”

“Where are you leaving to, kid?” Chris asked softly. When she didn’t answer, he looked over at Stan who didn’t seem happy either. “What’s going on?”

Stan sighed. “Stevie, just tell them.”

“I’m going to their world to try and help them figure out how to stop Thanos,” she mumbled quickly. When the boys didn’t say anything, she pulled out of Sebastian’s arms and rubbed at her eyes, staring down at the ground. “I have no idea how I’m going to do that, but I have to try. That’s why I wanted you guys here, so I could tell you instead of just disappearing out of your lives.” Looking up, she added, “Plus, I want you here when I leave. If it works, you’ll believe me.”

“If what works?” Sebastian asked the question this time.

Bending down, she pulled out the velvet bag, dropping the orb into her hand. “If this works. It should create a portal…”

“Like Dr. Strange makes?”

“I don’t know.”

“Neither do I,” Stan added. “My mother didn’t tell me much about it, just that there used to be a way to travel between worlds that disappeared over a hundred years ago. The only way to travel after that was those orbs. She managed to get two of them, using one to come here.” Gesturing toward Stephanie, he coughed. “That’s the second one.”

“I guess we'll find out for sure when I use it.”

Chris set the pictures down on the table and ran a hand through his hair roughly. “When do you leave?”

Stephanie checked the time and nearly burst out crying again. “I should probably leave soon. Wakanda is in East Africa, which is seven hours ahead of us. If I want to get there while it's still light out, I should probably leave within the next thirty minutes.” Chris pulled her into his arms and Stephanie could feel him shaking a little. His anxiety sometimes got the better of him, even though he never let it stop him from doing the things he loved. Hugging him tightly, she whispered, “I'm sorry. I don't want to leave you guys but…”

Chris pulled back slightly, looking down at the sister of his heart. “Assuming this is all true, do you really think you have a chance to help them?”

“I don't know,” she replied honestly. “But I feel like I need to try. They're split up because of the Accords. Bucky's in Wakanda, taking care of goats. Steve, Natasha, Sam... they're somewhere in the United States on the run. I don't know where everyone is, but I know that this all takes place in a few months. If I can get them back together... if I can get Fury to call Carol... maybe, just maybe, I can change what happens to their world.”

Pulling back completely, Chris had a soft smile on his face. Reaching up, he cupped the side of her face with one large hand, using his thumb to wipe away the solitary tear that fell down her cheek. “If you can help, then you should go.”

She turned to Sebastian who was not doing as good of a job of hiding his anxiety. Pulling him into her arms, she buried her face into his chest and held on as tight as she could. His voice came out hoarse as he said, “I'm going to miss you.”

Lifting her head, she stared up into those blue eyes that looked so much like Bucky's. “I'm going to miss you too. You know I love you, right?” She turned her head slightly to look at Chris. “And I love you too. You guys are my best friends. More than that, you're my brothers. Leaving you is probably the hardest thing I'll ever do.”

“We know you love us,” Chris said quietly. “We love you too.”

Sebastian's voice came out a little less stressed. “Yeah, what the Dorito said. We love you. I just… As long as you're happy, I'm happy.”

“Come here, kiddo.” Stan held out his arms, waiting for her to give him a hug. When she did, he rubbed her back and whispered, “It's not too late to turn back. You don't have to go.”

“Yes I do,” she whispered back just as softly. Pulling back, she looked down at the man who had inspired so much in her and in others. “I love you, Grandpa.”

“I love you too, Stevie. Go get my briefcase for me.” She did and he pulled out the photo album with the pictures of Celia in it. Placing it in her hands, he smiled. “Take this. There are more pictures than just those of my mother. There are some of the JC and you, as well as pictures that should help you convince the others you know what you’re talking about.” Smiling softly, he nodded in the direction of Chris and Sebastian. “Now, go say goodbye to your boys.”

After placing the portfolio in her backpack, she turned back to them and went to Sebastian first. Reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands and pulled him down, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Seb, you are one of the kindest people I know. Don’t let anyone kill that in you. I'm going to miss you so fucking much.” Giving him a tight hug, she added, “I love you.”

Sebastian swallowed hard. “I'm gonna miss you too, sweetheart. I love you.”

When he released her, she went over to Chris and did the same - pulled his head down, kissed his forehead, and wrapped him into a tight hug. “Chris, don't ever stop being who you are. You have shown time and time again that you were worthy of being Captain America. I'm going to miss you.” She choked back a sob. “Fuck, I'm gonna miss you both so much. I love you.”

As she buried her face against his chest, Chris said in a hoarse voice, “I love you too, kid. I'm going to miss you something fierce.”

After taking several deep breaths, she let go and picked up her backpack, putting it on. Then she grabbed her duffel and turned to look at her grandfather. "Tell Mom… I don't know. Tell her the truth. Maybe then she'll finally believe us about the visions… about everything." Holding up the orb, her hand trembled as tears threatened to fall. Closing her eyes tight, she took several deep breaths before opening them again and looking at her boys. "You guys be good. Don't close off your hearts, try to find love. It's not good to be alone."

"We will," Sebastian said. "Don't wanna try about us."

"You're my brothers, I'll worry about you no matter what." Taking another deep breath, she sighed, "I hope this works," and tossed the orb to the ground. The air seemed to shimmer, and it looked almost as if there was a thin layer of water in the air. She could see through to the other side, but it was hazy, so she couldn't make out details. Looking back one more time, she said, "I love you guys," and stepped through.

\--------------------

"Where is my daughter, Dad?" Joan asked angrily. "I've been texting her for hours. She never ignores me."

"JC, sit down," Stan commanded, patting the edge of his hospital bed. When she did, he grabbed her hand. "I know you don't believe in the visions, but Stevie's gone to their world. She's going to help…"

"Oh, God… no," she muttered, burying her face in her free hand. "Why did you let her go? That world is dangerous."

"Joan?" he asked, confused. "I thought you…"

"Didn't believe?" She laughed bitterly. "I've had the visions ever since I turned thirteen. I just didn't tell you because I wanted to be normal. I wanted them to not be real." Sighing, she rubbed her eyes. "Is this why I had a vision of her over there?"

"Where she's happier than she's ever been?" Joan nodded and he smiled. "I've had the same one. She's going to be fine JC. Have faith."

"I'm scared."

"Me too. But Stevie is the strongest person I know. If anyone can fix their world, it's her."


	13. Oracle at Delphi

2018

Stepping through the portal, Stephanie left her life and everyone she knew behind. Traveling to a universe where Thanos existed was a stressful concept. If she had known nothing about the people she needed to assemble, she wouldn’t have felt brave enough to come, no matter how bad the future coming was.

Stopping in the middle of a large room, she looked around at the futuristic equipment. It appeared to be a laboratory of some sort, one that looked vaguely familiar. Her visions of Wakanda had been limited to when Steve and Bucky were there, as well as during the fight against Thanos, so her knowledge of the palace was minimal. However, the area she arrived in looked reminiscent of where Bucky had been put into cryostasis, which meant this must be Shuri’s lab.

Letting her gaze wander, she noticed two guards at the door and another person standing in front of a large screen, typing on a keyboard. From the back, the figure appeared to be female so Stephanie assumed it was Shuri, but she couldn’t be sure, especially given how far away she was. Luckily, no one had noticed her yet, so she carefully walked toward them, stopping several feet away and clearing her throat. When Shuri turned around but didn’t seem alarmed, Stephanie dropped her duffel bag and crossed her arms in the traditional Wakandan greeting. “Princess Shuri, it’s an honor to meet you.” Holding out her hand, she waited for Shuri to take it before continuing, “My name is…”

As Stephanie fell to the floor, flashes of visions flitted through her brain. A young girl taking apart her father’s computer. Her learning to fight with the Dora Milaje as a teenager. Visions of Shuri’s entire life played out so quickly there was no way to glean any information from them. The only thing she knew for certain was the pain that accompanied them.

Stephanie woke on the floor, Shuri and T’Challa were standing above her, whispering and gesturing at one another vigorously. When she groaned and brought a hand to her aching eyes, the chatter ceased. “Brother, I’m trying to tell you,” Shuri sounded excited as she spoke empathetically, “her eyes turned white and they glowed.”

Forcing herself into a seated position, Stephanie looked at the siblings. Shuri wore her dark hair in a complicated updo made out of braids, her youthful face uncovered by makeup other than a hint of lip gloss. In a pair of high-rise jeans and a white crop top, she wouldn’t have looked out of place anywhere in the United States. T’Challa, on the other hand, wore a black and purple garment that appeared to be a more traditional Wakandan dress, at least from what Stephanie had seen in the comics.

Sighing, T’Challa glanced down at the white woman sitting on the floor of his sister’s lab. “And I’m telling you that’s impossible. The oracles were hunted to extinction in the 1500s.”

“I’m a seer,” Stephanie muttered.

Ignoring the interruption, he frowned at Shuri. “Why did you talk to this woman? You have no idea who she is or where she’s from. She could be…”

Holding up a hand, Shuri argued, “I am inside the palace, behind several layers of guards, and she had no visible weapons. How was I supposed to know you didn’t send her?” Placing her hands on her hips, she added calmly, “I know what I saw, brother. She is an oracle.”

Darting her eyes around the room, Stephanie saw Okoye crouched down next to her duffel which was wide open, clothes strewn on the floor. As she started to unzip the backpack, Stephanie put as much strength into her voice as she could muster, threatening, “Touch that and die.” When all eyes turned to her, she added, “I don’t care if you are King T’Challa’s personal guard, don’t touch my stuff.”

Okoye gave her an amused look but stopped searching through her stuff. T’Challa walked over and offered his hand to help her up. When she ignored it and climbed unsteadily to her feet, he inquired, “Woman, whose name I do not know, why are you here?”

Rubbing the bridge of her nose, trying to alleviate the pain, she sighed. “Please don’t be offended, King T’Challa. Touching Princess Shuri set off my visions and…”

“You don’t know how to control them?” Shuri whispered in shock.

“No,” she answered simply. Looking back at T’Challa, she shrugged. “This is the first time that’s happened to me, and I would rather it not happen again. It was rather unpleasant. And before you ask again, my name is Stephanie Lee. I’m here for Bucky.”

“Bucky?” His voice rose in confusion.

“Yes, Bucky. There’s…” Gulping, she took a deep breath. “There’s something bad coming and I need all of the Avengers, Bucky included.” Keeping a wide berth between her and the royals, Stephanie walked over to her backpack, picking it up. The duffel and clothes she left on the floor. “Can you take me to him?”

“First, you need to explain how you got in here and why my sister thinks you’re an oracle.”

Sighing, she clutched her bag against her chest, muttering to herself, “I’m going to have to explain this so many times. Fuck.” Closing her eyes, she counted to ten and took several deep breaths. Opening them, she started telling an abbreviated version of her story. “I’m not from your universe, I’m from a place where you guys only exist in my family’s visions. However, my great-grandmother came from here, she was a seer. I’ve had visions of things that happen here for the last eighteen years. That’s why I used the orb to portal here, to stop what’s coming.”

“You portaled here?” Shuri exclaimed, completely ignoring the fact that she’d said something bad was coming. “Brother, that ability was lost…”

“Long ago. Yes, I know.” He sighed. “You cannot be an oracle. They died out when the inquisition hunted them down for witchcraft.”

“I’m not an oracle, whatever that is. My grandfather told me I’m a seer.” Then she realized what he’d said. “Wait, they were hunted down?”

“Yes.”

“My family was in hiding, I don’t know for how long, but it’s part of why my great-grandmother left this place.” Looking at each of them in turn, she pleaded, “Please, take me to Bucky. There are only a few months to prepare, and I need him to help me convince the others.”

“First, tell me what you saw when you touched my sister.” Before she could argue, he held up a hand, saying calmly, "While my sister is not normally taken to fanciful tales, I need more to go on than just her saying she saw your eyes glow."

Closing her eyes, she tried to remember something specific, knowing he needed more proof before taking her anywhere. “Shuri was maybe six or seven, wearing a neo pink and green dress. She was in a room, probably an office, and she was on the floor with a computer around her in pieces. But it wasn’t destroyed, just taken apart. It looked methodical, neatly stacked and organized, like she was trying to learn how it worked.”

“Brother…” Shuri breathed.

“Yes, I know.” T’Challa sighed, yet again. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, Shuri. Miss Lee, you are an oracle, or at least something similar to one.” Glancing at his sister, he asked, “Is Bucky’s new arm finished?”

“Yes!!”

“Go get it ready. I have a feeling we’ll need it.” Looking back at Stephanie, his gaze softened. “Please forgive my rudeness earlier, I…”

“You were just protecting your kingdom and your sister. I understand, there is nothing to forgive.” She watched Shuri skip away, looking far happier than she probably should. “Please, call me Stephanie.”

“Only if you call me T’Challa. I’m still not quite used to being king.”

Her face fell. “I am sorry about your father, Ki… T’Challa. While King T’Chaka had opinions on isolationism and the Accords that I don’t share, he was a good man. I’m just glad you didn’t kill Bucky after his death.”

His eyes widened. “I never should have doubted my sister.” Shaking his head, he gave her a soft smile. “We should go before my sister decides she needs to come as well. You can leave your bag here if you'd wish. No one will touch it, you have my word.”

Holding on tight to the bag, she looked at his earnest expression and nodded. Setting it on the floor next to her duffel, she responded, “Lead on.”

\--------------------

As they drew closer to the hut where Bucky was staying, Stephanie began to recognize the landscape. Her, T’Challa, and Okoye walked together, having left Shuri at the lab to make sure the arm was ready for attaching.

Bucky stood under a tree, leaning against it as he watched his goats. Sensing the group, he turned and saw his friends with serious expressions on their faces. He had no idea who the woman with them was, so he kept his attention on T’Challa. Standing up straight, he walked over, stopping several feet away. There was only one reason for T’Challa to visit him. “Where’s the fight?”

“It’s not here yet,” he replied softly. “But it’s coming, and soon.”

Releasing a heavy sigh, he nodded respectfully to Okoye before turning his attention to the beautiful woman standing next to her. With long brown hair, hazel eyes, and a curvy figure, she was quite probably the most naturally gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. She seemed to be wearing what Natasha called leggings and a baggy grey sweater that drooped over one shoulder, showing off a black and white tattoo. Even though he found her attractive, he didn’t know why T’Challa would bring her to him. “Who is she?”

As he looked at her, Stephanie could feel herself being drawn toward him. She took an involuntary step forward, and then another. “Bucky,” she said softly, still moving forward.

The closer she got, the more Bucky felt like he knew her. There was something about her that seemed familiar, something he couldn’t place. Once she was within touching distance, he lifted a hand up to her face, whispering, “Doll?”

When his hand touched her, she tensed, waiting for the onslaught of visions that didn’t come. Leaning her head against his hand, the tension released from her shoulders and she sighed, finally feeling at peace. She sighed and took a step back, not fully wanting to believe he could have recognized her.

Bucky looked at the woman, then turned to T’Challa. “I need to talk to…” He looked back at her, waiting for her to say her name.

“Stephanie.”

“Stephanie.” He smiled and held out his hand waiting for her to take it. “We’ll be back in a minute.” Dragging her toward his hut, he didn’t let go until they were inside. The only reason he released her was so he could touch her face again. Only having one arm made things difficult sometimes. “Who are you?” he asked quietly.

“Stephanie,” she repeated. “But you can call me Steph or Stevie if you want.”

“Stevie?” An eyebrow rose. “Yeah, can’t call you Stevie. That’s what I call…”

“Steve, I know.”

“And how do you know?” He sounded genuinely curious, but he shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. Why do I feel like I know you? You feel like…” He didn’t want to admit that he thought she felt like his ghost. But there was something about her, something that made him want to be honest. “There’s a… a presence that’s shown up throughout my life. The first time was when I was… not myself and she felt really young. I’ve felt her several times over the years, and you… you feel just like her.”

“You can still feel me?” Her voice came out at barely a whisper.

“Doll?” He stepped closer, digging his fingers into her hair. “Is it really you?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“I’m going to do something that I’ve been wanting to do for years unless you say no.” He lowered his face until his mouth was only inches from hers.

Reaching her hands up, she cupped his face, pulling him closer. “Kiss me.”

He did, pressing his lips gently to hers, tongue slipping into her mouth as she sighed against him. God, when she kissed him, it felt right, like this was where he belonged. Although all he wanted to do was kiss her forever, he stopped, lifting his head and looking down into her eyes, breathless. “How is this possible?”

“It’s a long story, one I’ll tell you in excruciatingly painful detail, just not right now.” She took a step back so she wouldn’t be tempted to kiss him again. “Right now we need to get the team back together. As much as I wish I could say I was here just for you, I’m here to… to stop something bad. Or at least, try to stop something bad.”

Taking her hand in his, intertwining their fingers together, he nodded. “Alright. How soon do we need to leave?”

“As soon as we can.”

“Let me grab some stuff.” Letting go, he picked up a backpack off the floor and deftly opened it, adding in a few things that he had collected during his time in Wakanda. There were several notebooks in the bag, and with the personal items, it was mostly full. Once it was closed, he slung it over his shoulder. “Let’s not keep them waiting.”

\--------------------

Stephanie stood by the hospital-esque bed Bucky laid on, his chest bare so Shuri could begin the procedure to reattach the arm. He looked at her, frowning. “I don’t want you to see this, doll.”

She reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tight. “Bucky, I’ve seen a lot worse happen to you than having a metal arm attached.”

“What do you mean?”

Shuri cleared her throat and they both looked at her. “I need to anesthetize Bucky before I attach the arm.”

“I don’t need to be…” Bucky started to argue, but Shuri stopped him with a look.

“I will be cutting open your flesh and attaching metal plates to your bones. If you want this arm, you will not be awake for it.”

Squeezing his hand again, Stephanie stated firmly, “You are not staying awake for this. If you don’t want the arm, I understand, but…”

“It’s not that I don’t want the arm…” he started to say, stopping when he saw her look of disbelief. “It’s just a tool, doll. I came to that realization long ago, and to be honest, it will be nice to have two arms again. Some things are a little hard to do with only one.”

“Bucky, I’ve seen…” she murmured, cutting herself off before finishing her statement. Since she still hadn’t told him about her visions or the fact that she was from an alternate universe yet, she couldn’t tell him what she knew of his torture. “I know how much you hated your arm. I don’t want to be the reason you hate your new one.”

“Shuri, can you give us a second?” Bucky asked. Waiting until Shuri left, he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, reaching out to drag her between them. Cupping her face with his hand, he tried to explain, “I may have hated my arm, but it was more I hated what it represented. HYDRA did a lot of things to me, made me do a lot of things that I’m not proud of. Fuck, I remember everything I did when I was… Nevermind, that’s not important. What is important is that none of this is your decision. I could choose not to have the new arm put on, but I’m going to do it. If there’s a fight coming, I want to be ready.”

“But…”

“No, Stephanie, this is my choice and mine alone.” Holding her head in place, he leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “Fuck, it feels great that I finally get to do that.” Resting his forehead against hers, he sighed. “Go. Talk to T’Challa, tell him what we need to do next. Maybe he has an idea where Steve is right now. I’ve been keeping myself out of everything on purpose, but he might know something.”

“Bucky…” she tried again, pulling back so she could look in his eyes.

“Doll, let me ask you something.” She nodded and he asked plainly, “What’s coming that’s so bad you need the team back together again? Steve and Tony haven’t talked in two years. It’s going to be hell trying to get them in the same room, let alone working together again.”

“It’s… it’s bad. Maybe it would be better to wait until everyone is together to talk about it.” Looking away, Stephanie watched T’Challa chatting with Shuri, not wanting to say anything else. “If you want me to tell you, I will, but…”

Lifting his hand, he turned her to face him. “Tell me when you’re ready. I’m not going to push.”

Stepping closer, she wrapped her arms around his torso, burying her face into his neck. Almost too soft to be heard, she muttered, “I never thought I would get to do this.”

A throat cleared and they turned to Shuri who looked embarrassed to have interrupted. “Are you ready to begin?” she asked gently.

Stephanie stepped back out of his embrace, face flushing as she looked anywhere but him. “I’m going to talk to T’Challa.” She glanced at Shuri. “Please, be careful.”

“I will,” she replied solemnly. “Bucky will be fine. Attaching the arm will be easier than removing the old one.”

Leaving them, Stephanie headed for T’Challa, who directed her toward a sitting area close enough that they didn’t have to leave the lab, but far enough away that they could no longer see what Shuri was doing. Once they both sat, her on the couch, him on the chair next to it, he gave her a pointed look. “So… Oracle… Tell me, why are you here?”

“I’ve already told you that…”

“Something bad is coming. Yes, you did.” T’Challa glanced over in the direction of where the operation was prepping to take place. “That, however, does not answer my question.” When she opened her mouth to argue, he held up a hand and sighed. “I am not stupid, Stephanie, I saw the way you were looking at Bucky. If you came here for him, I would not look at you askance. I only ask that you…”

“I didn’t come here for him,” she interrupted, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Rubbing her eyes, she groaned. “If it were just for Bucky, I wouldn’t have come, no matter what feelings I may or may not have for him.” Looking at T’Challa, she tried to keep calm. “The thing coming is bad, really bad. I’ve got something in my bag I can show you if you’d like to know more.”

Shaking his head, he chuckled lightly. “Maybe later. Now, what are your next steps? You said you need all of the Avengers?”

“Do you know where Steve is?” When T’Challa shook his head, she sighed. “Do you know where any of them are? Fury? Wanda? Tony?”

“Unfortunately, I am not privy to that information. Steve and Natasha call us every couple of weeks and we have at least another week before they call again, but even when they do, that knowledge is purposefully kept from us. Fury knows where they are, so if you can find him, he’ll be able to get word to them. I’ve deliberately kept them from telling me any information that could potentially get back to the people searching for them. As for Wanda and Vision…” He shrugged. “From what I understand they are somewhere in the United Kingdom hiding out.”

“Fuck,” she muttered, running a hand through her hair. “That’s going to make things difficult.”

T’Challa watched emotions flash across her face, from irritation to anger to despair. “You are an oracle, Stephanie. Just use your…”

“I don’t know how!” she exclaimed. “I know nothing about my abilities. Nothing!! Every single vision I’ve ever had just happened. The only time I’ve managed to bring one on was when I thought about a specific person, then I had a vision of the present. Or more accurately, I astral projected into this…” Her eyes widened. “That’s it! I can just astral project myself to them, finding them that way.”

“I’m not sure…”

“I have to try.” Crossing her legs underneath her on the couch, she closed her eyes. “Who should I attempt to find first?”


	14. For Asgard

2018 

Thinking about the multitude of people they needed to find, Stephanie’s mind wandered to what would potentially happen in a few months. There were so many who got involved in the war, it was difficult to decide who to look for first. Tony would be the easiest to find, being as he lived at the compound. Hopefully, he would be there and not somewhere else. If not, he shouldn’t be too difficult to find as he was a well-known billionaire and they had the option of going to Stark Industries and talk to Pepper. If they found Fury first, they should know where to find Steve and Natasha. So that left Wanda and Vision.

But there were other people that were needed too. Fury held the way to contact Carol, so she didn’t need to worry about her, but Thor was another story. Stephanie didn’t know everything that happened to him, as she’d never had visions of him during the war. The only thing she’d seen was when he came down from the sky, ax lodging in Thanos’s chest. But from stories her grandfather had told her, she knew what he went through prior to that point. He had just witnessed the death of half of his people, Heimdall, and…

Opening her eyes, she looked at T’Challa. “Loki!” she exclaimed. When he just gave her a confused look, she tried to explain. “Loki dies. But more than that, a good portion of Thor’s people are killed.”

“And so…”

“I need to go to them first.” Standing, she started to pace. “The problem is that I’ve never astral projected to anyone other than Bucky… and Steve. I’m not even sure I can reach them.”

Sighing, T’Challa leaned back in the chair, trying to remain patient. Even though Stephanie was closer in age to him, she reminded him a lot of his sister, except less self-assured. He had to remember that she was never trained as an oracle, so her ignorance was to be expected. Not that he had much more information than she did, but he did recall some of the stories from his childhood. “Have you ever tried to reach someone else via astral projection?” he asked calmly.

Stopping, she looked at him. “No. But I… I haven’t had a vision of anyone other than Bucky and Steve since I was a teenager. I thought that was because… because…”

“Please, sit back down.” He gestured at the chair, leaning forward, resting his forearms on his thighs, clasping one hand in the other. “My sister would be better at explaining oracles and their abilities. While I do remember some of the stories my mother told from when I was a child, I do not remember all of them. The one thing I do recall is that an oracle’s mind directs what they see.” Rubbing a hand over his face, he tried to make his voice calm in an attempt to offer his strength for comfort. “Stephanie, all you can do is try. If it does not work… then it does not work. We will find another way to contact the others.”

Stephanie nodded and he sat up straight, so she crossed her legs underneath her again, palms face down on her knees. Closing her eyes, she thought of the Asgardians, trying to bring on a vision. After several minutes, she opened her eyes and ran a hand down her face. “It’s not working,” she whined. “I tried to think of them, but nothing happened.”

Lifting a hand, T’Challa rubbed the bridge of his nose while containing a heavy sigh. He didn’t want her to think that he was irritated, but it was difficult to hide how he felt. “Try thinking of one person. Focus on that one individual, not a group.”

Closing her eyes again, she thought of the person she was trying to save, concentrating fully on what made Loki… Loki. From the little she had seen of him in her visions, he was a trickster who enjoyed messing with people, but the one thing she knew that probably most didn’t was the love he felt for his brother. They may be of different races, but the bond they had was profound.

\--------------------

_Opening her eyes, Stephanie found herself on the bridge of a spaceship, looking out a window at the stars passing by as it moved through space. Turning away from the spectacular sight, she looked around and saw Loki and Thor talking, Bruce standing nearby with a brown-haired woman she assumed was Valkyrie. Heading over to them, she was slightly surprised when Loki’s head turned her way and he ceased speaking. His eyes scanned the area where she stood, before locking on her._

_“Brother, are you not going to answer my question?” Thor queried, curious as to why Loki would cut off his response mid-answer._

_But Loki ignored him, instead, keeping his gaze on the figure he saw strolling toward them. “Do you see her, Thor?” he muttered. “Or am I more damaged than I thought?”_

_Stopping mid-stride, Stephanie looked at Loki, a thousand thoughts crossing her mind at once. He could see her? How? Lifting her hands up, she expected them to be completely transparent but instead saw a faint fuzzy outline. It wasn’t enough for her to see colors or definition, but it was clear that they were hands. She would have to ask Shuri about it later, but right now she needed Loki to understand and listen to her._

_She continued forward, trying not to think about why this was so different than with Bucky. As she neared the group, Thor looked her way as well, face scrunching up in confusion. Ignoring the look, she headed over Loki, stopping right in front of him. With Bucky, she’d been able to push her feelings outward, allowing him to understand at least some of what she wanted. So she tried to impress upon him the need to hurry, thinking about Thanos and the threat he posed._

_A sudden burst of pain shot through Loki’s head and he brought a hand up to his eyes, pressing down to alleviate the pain. “Slower. I can’t understand what you’re trying to say.”_

_“Brother?” Thor tried again, laying a hand on Loki’s shoulder._

_Loki glanced over at him. “We have a visitor.” Valkyrie drew her sword from her back sheath, brandishing it in front of her, but he shook his head. “I don’t sense any threat, Val. Besides, your sword will do nothing to her as she isn't truly here.”_

_“I don’t like this,” she growled, still holding the sword in front of her, ready for battle._

_Thor placed a hand on her arm, forcing her to lower the weapon. “If Loki says it is safe, I trust him.”_

_“Thor,” she said, anger lacing the solitary word._

_“No, Brunn. Loki has made mistakes in the past, but I am not holding that against him and neither should you.” Thor nodded at his brother. “Figure out what the presence wants. I trust you.”_

_The tension released from Loki’s shoulders and he concentrated on the figure in front of him. Taking a step forward, he gestured for her to come closer. As she did, he said soft enough the others wouldn’t hear, “Lay your hands on my face. Focus. I can sense your thoughts and emotions, but it’s a jumble of confusion.” He sighed. “Try to put your energy into one thought at a time. I should be able to discern what you are telling me if you do that.”_

_Doing as he asked, Stephanie closed the distance, lifting her hands to his face. She tried to concentrate on the first thing that he needed to know. The thing that only he would understand. Thanos. She thought it over and over again, trying to make it as loud as she could. When his eyes widened in fear, she knew it had gotten through._

_“Thanos?” he asked, voice rising in fear. “Why are you thinking Thanos?” When her thoughts started becoming jumbled again, he commanded, “Slower. Please, slower.”_

_He had gotten Thanos, but she didn’t know how to get across the fact that he was coming for the Asgardians. What word would make him realize the inherent danger coming? Then she remembered what they had just escaped, the destruction of their homeworld. From the comics, she knew that he had taken the Tesseract off the planet and that it possessed the capability to transport whoever held it from place to place. So the next thing she projected at him were thoughts of the blue cube._

_“The Tesseract?” The surprise at her thought almost made him forget to keep his voice down. It wouldn’t do for Thor to find out that he had taken it off Asgard during Ragnarok, at least not yet. “Why are you thinking of the Tesseract?”_

_Since he hadn’t been able to ascertain her meaning previously, she knew he wouldn’t now. Instead, since he could use the Tesseract to transport himself, maybe he would understand if she said where she was. So she concentrated as loud as she could, shouting in her mind,_ WAKANDA!

_The strength of her thought caused Loki to take an involuntary step back, the telepathic link sending a shock of pain through his skull. When Thor started toward him, he held up a hand. “Do not fret, brother. She was merely too… exuberant with her thoughts.” He thought through the three things she’d said, muttering to himself. “Thanos, Tesseract, Wakanda. Thanos, Tesseract, Wakanda.”_

_Thor overheard part of what he said. “Why are you muttering about Wakanda, Loki? How do you even know of Wakanda?”_

_“That’s it!” he exclaimed, looking at the female figure, finally figuring out what she was trying to tell him. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”_

\--------------------

Pushing herself back up to a seated position, Stephanie lifted a hand to her head. Even though it had only been a few minutes, she felt woozy, like the room was spinning. Groaning, she managed to say, “He’s coming,” before passing out on the couch.

T’Challa looked at Stephanie, wondering what had happened to make her faint like that. Standing, he moved over to her, leaning down to shake her shoulder when a blue portal appeared in the lab, then disappeared. When it did, Loki stood there, a blue cube in his hands. He’d heard stories about Loki, none of them good, and since Stephanie wasn’t awake to say whether or not his coming was intentional, he nodded imperceptibly to the two guards and they rushed over, pointing their spears at him.

Looking around, Loki tried to find the presence that had brought him here. When he saw the handsome black man coming toward him, he gave a cocky, self-assured smile, bowing with a slight flourish. “Loki Odinson of Asgard, at your service.”

“Mr. Odinson,” T’Challa started to say.

“Loki, please.” He waved a hand dismissively. “I may be a son of Odin, but I prefer not to think of it.”

“T’Challa,” he replied simply, laying a hand on his chest. “Why are you here Loki?”

“There was a woman who showed up on the deck of the Statesman. She thought three things at me. Thanos, Tesseract, and Wakanda. I assumed that she wanted me to come here.” He looked around again, seeing only a younger, feminine version of T’Challa carving open Barnes like a roast turkey. “Where is she?”

“Thanos? Tesseract?” T’Challa crossed his arms over his chest, glancing at him warily. “Why should I allow you access to… to her?”

“She seemed rather frantic in her message to me. I’m not sure it’s wise to…”

Sitting up, Stephanie groaned. “T’Challa, it’s alright.” Her voice sounded gravelly due to exhaustion. She’d never felt that tired after a vision, not even when they lasted much longer than this one had. Pushing herself to a standing position, she staggered over to them. “I brought Loki here. He needs to know what’s going to happen to his people.”

When she started to waver in place, T’Challa hesitated briefly before moving closer to help her stand, stopping only when she held up a hand. “Do you trust him?” he asked gently.

“Implicitly.” When both of them looked at her, mouths slightly agape, she sighed. “I know that Loki has done some things that could be considered… irredeemable, but the Battle of New York wasn’t his fault, not really. It was…”

“Thanos,” Loki finished. “Why were you thinking Thanos so loudly at me on the ship?”

Taking a step closer to him, she stared into his blue eyes. “Listen to me, I know what Thanos’s plan is. I know what his desire is for this galaxy. However, right now the more pressing concern is your people. He’s going to board your ship, killing half of everyone on board. Heimdall dies, Thor…”

“Does Thor die?” he asked quickly.

“No, but…” God, she didn’t know if she should tell him, but she couldn’t keep it from him either. “You do, at his hands. But that’s only part of why I came to you.” She made her voice stronger, trying to make him realize how serious she was. “You need to go back and tell Thor to hurry. To get to Earth as quickly as the ship can make it here. If Thanos gets the Tesseract, he will become more powerful. He’s already got a couple of the other Infinity Stones, he doesn’t need to…”

“He has some of the stones?” When she nodded, he said solemnly, “Thanos is very dangerous. How do you know of him?”

“Stephanie is an oracle,” T’Challa interjected.

“No, the last oracle died on Asgard over fifty years ago.” As Stephanie staggered back from him, staring at him in shock, Loki continued, “Tessa lived a long life with us, much longer than she would have here. My fath… Odin found her on Midgard nearly two hundred years ago. She was on the run and begged him for a quick death. Instead of complying with her wishes, he brought her back to Asgard. In the time since we have never come across another.”

“She is an oracle,” Shuri said confidently, walking up as she dried off her hands with a white cloth. Smiling softly at Stephanie, she reassured, “Bucky is doing fine. He’ll be out for a little while longer, and he’ll need to wear a sling for a day or so until it’s fully healed, but he’s fine.” Turning back to Loki, she held out a hand, waiting for him to shake it. “Shuri, daughter of T’Chaka and Ramonda, sister to King T’Challa, resident genius extraordinaire.”

“Princess Shuri,” he said respectively, nodding slightly. “It is a pleasure to meet you. However, she cannot be an oracle. Tessa was…”

“She was not the last,” Shuri argued. “When she arrived, she shook my hand and suffered a seizure brought on by overwhelming visions. When that happened, her eyes turned white and they glowed.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she added smugly, “She astral projected to you in order to pass on a message. What other being do you know that can do either of those things? Just because you believe something to be extinct does not mean it is.”

“Guys,” Stephanie interrupted, still struggling to hold herself upright, but she refused to allow herself to use either of the royals as a crutch, especially when she wasn’t sure if she could hold back the visions that would come from the touch. “Whether I’m an oracle or not is not important. What is important is that Loki needs to get back to the ship and do everything in his power to avoid Thanos.” Looking him in the eyes, she pleaded, “Please, Loki, protect your people. Protect yourself. Don’t allow Thanos to win.”

Stepping toward her, he laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I will…” When her eyes stared at him, completely white, glowing slightly, his mouth dropping open slightly. “I apologize, Shuri, I was wrong.”

“Loki Odinson née Laufeyson, born of Jotunheim, adopted son of Odin and Frigga. Ask the question for which you desire an answer.” Stephanie’s voice sounded almost ethereal as she spoke. She knew what was happening, but it was almost as if the words came unbidden.

“I…” Loki paused, knowing exactly what an oracle could do. There were so many things he could ask, but he didn’t want to cause her pain by making her relive any of his worst memories. “Will my people make it to Midgard?”

Eyes fluttering shut, Stephanie’s mind flew through the possibilities, seeing multiple ways everything could play out given the current circumstances. When they opened again, they were still white, her voice still sounding strange. “Should you return with the knowledge I have imparted, there is hope for your people to make it to Midgard safely. But you must not tarry much longer. If too much time passes, Thanos will come and he will destroy the ship, killing half of the remaining Asgardians.”

Lifting his hand off of her, he took a step back as she staggered forward, not wanting Stephanie to touch him again. “I must be going.” Staring at the woman in front of him, he gulped hard. “Oracle, we will get here posthaste.” Taking the Tesseract in both hands, he took several steps back before disappearing into a portal.

Stephanie groaned, staggering back over to the couch and falling down onto it. “Fuck,” she moaned. “Why am I so exhausted?”

Shuri joined her on the couch, sitting cross-legged, staring at Stephanie. Dark circles encased her eyes that hadn’t been there just a couple of hours ago. Even with the dark circles and red-rimmed hazel eyes, she was still very pretty. She could definitely see why Bucky was so enamored with her. “There is a lot about oracles that you don’t know, isn’t there?”

“I didn’t even know I was an oracle before today.” Leaning back against the cushions, she laid an arm over her eyes, trying to block the light which seemed much brighter than it had been. “But I still have to find the others. We can’t wait.”

“Can you at least wait for Bucky to wake up?” Shuri inquired gently. “Maybe his presence will help.”

“I don’t think I should.” Stephanie wanted nothing more than to have him by her side, but she was worried he would distract her from what she needed to do. “Finding Fury will be the first thing we need to do once we go to the States, from there we should be able to find Steve. Tony… Tony should be easy, after all, Pepper is CEO of Stark Industries.”

“How do you…” T’Challa stopped himself, shaking his head. “Nevermind, I don’t even know why I’m asking.”

“But we need Wanda and Vision.” Removing her arm, she looked at Shuri through bleary eyes. “Wanda is one of the most powerful people I know of. She’s going to be needed.”

“But Bucky…” Shuri tried.

“I know. Bucky would want to be awake for it. But…” Rubbing her eyes again, she let out a large yawn. “I need to do this without… without…”

“Without worrying him?”

“I don’t know.” Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. “I’m exhausted, Shuri, but if I don’t do this now I don’t know if I’ll be able to later.” Cracking open her eyes slightly, she looked at T’Challa. “You don’t need to stay around for this if you don’t want to. It might take longer than it did with Loki.”

He sat down in the same chair he’d been in before, crossing one leg over the other and settling in for however long it took. “I will not leave you, Oracle. Do what needs to be done, I will be here when it is over.”

Sighing, Stephanie closed her eyes and thought of Wanda. She pictured the fiery red hair, the fiery temper to match, and the strength of character that she possessed. While she’d had as many visions of Wanda as she’d had of Loki, she knew enough about her to focus on those things to find her.

\--------------------

_Stephanie looked around the deserted street, not quite recognizing where she was. It was dusk, but still light enough that she could discern buildings and other landmarks. She spotted a cathedral that looked familiar even though she couldn’t remember its name. However, knowing that Wanda and Vision were somewhere in the United Kingdom would make it easier to figure out where they were in case she couldn’t get through to them._

_A feminine laugh came from behind her and she turned around, seeing Wanda walking next to a very human-looking Vision, even if he did have a yellow stone embedded in his forehead. But when Wanda’s eyes landed on her, the laugh ceased and a frown crossed her young face. When a red glow surrounded her hands, Stephanie stopped moving, unsure of what was happening._

_Wanda’s eyes darted from side to side, sensing a presence near her. Bringing her power to the surface, she readied it, willing to use it to protect her and Vision if necessary. “Vis, do you sense anything?”_

_“No, I do not,” he replied in his clear British accent. “What is it that you sense, Wanda?”_

_“There’s someone here. I can’t… I can’t tell what it is, but I know there’s someone.”_

_Stephanie knew that one of Wanda’s powers had to do with telepathy, so she tried to concentrate on explaining that she wasn’t a threat. But the red surrounding Wanda’s hands just got larger, the look in her eyes more intense. If it weren’t for the fact that she needed them to help stop Thanos, she would have left to go back to Wakanda. Concentrating harder, she tried to send her thoughts to the woman in front of her. Moving closer, she held her hands up, intending to touch Wanda, hoping that would help._

_The presence in front of them seemed to solidify, taking on a vaguely feminine form. But even though it was sending off non-threatening vibes, Wanda couldn’t be certain of anything. They’d been on the run for two years, ever since the fight between Steve and Tony, making it hard for her to trust anyone or anything. She’d chosen the side of freedom, so when she’d been imprisoned and collared, she swore that would never happen again. Instead, they ran as fast and as far as they could, trying to escape the government that thought of them as war criminals._

_The closer the figure got to them, the more terrified Wanda became. Even having Vision next to her didn’t help calm her down. The thought that someone was coming after her activated every fear response she had. After being held captive by HYDRA for so many years, then by Tony, and finally by the US government, she didn’t trust anyone other than the people who had become like her family._

_Wanda’s hands raised, the power coalescing into a large orb in front of her. Stephanie stood there in shock, unable to believe that it hadn’t worked. Since Bucky and Steve had never felt her touch them, and the environments she visited never seemed to affect her, she assumed nothing would happen. The red orb grew larger and Wanda threw it at her._

\--------------------

Stephanie woke with a scream, hands clutching at her stomach. Her entire body throbbed with pain after being hit with the orb. Pain on a level that she’d never experienced before. Her scream trailed off into sobs, and she fell on her side on the couch, curling up into a ball.

A soft hand touched her shoulder and Shuri asked, “Are you okay?”

“No,” she mumbled, her tears making it nearly impossible to say anything else. “Hurts.”

“What happened?”

“Wanda… power… pain…” She kept crying, curling herself up tighter, trying to make the agony stop.

Footsteps rushed over to the couch, Bucky crouching down in front of her shirtless, his shoulder wrapped in gauze. “Doll, what’s wrong?”

“Bucky, you shouldn’t be up and about,” Shuri murmured.

He glared, trying not to be mad at the teenager. “She screamed. Of course I’m going to come running.”

“You really do care about her?” Shuri couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It didn’t make sense that Bucky would have feelings for a woman he didn’t know. “How…?”

Sighing, Bucky closed his eyes briefly, then turned back toward Stephanie. “Steph, sweetheart…” He laid a hand on her face, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear. “What happened?”

“She went to find Wanda,” T’Challa answered, glancing unhappily at his sister. He had thought it was a bad idea, this only reinforced it. “She had found Loki and that went fine. But she was tired, exhausted really, but she decided to go and try to get to Wanda as well.”

“Try to get to Wanda? How?”

“Bucky,” Stephanie whimpered. “Hurts.”

“I know, doll.” Standing, he bent down to pick her up, stopping when Shuri laid a hand on his arm.

“I know you want to help her, Bucky. But if you lift her when your arm is still healing, the grafts might not take.”

“Shuri,” he growled.

“Don’t take that tone with me.” She glared back, giving him a look that a sister might give a brother. “Do you think it would make her happy to know that you hurt yourself because of her? No, it wouldn’t.”

“How do you expect me to help her then?” He sank back down onto his heels in front of Stephanie, lifting his hands to his face. When he did so with his new metal arm, he dropped it back down, groaning at the sudden discomfort. “Fuck, Shuri, I just want to help.”

“I can stand,” Stephanie muttered, forcing herself up to a seated position. Resting a hand on Bucky's knee, she added, “S’not so bad.”

“Steph…”

Using all of her limited strength, she used Bucky as leverage and stood, swaying on her feet. When Bucky stood quickly, she leaned against him, grateful he was there. Using his flesh arm, he wrapped it around her waist, holding her up so she didn’t have to try as hard to remain upright. “Bucky… so tired.”

“T’Challa, do you have a…”

“A room? Yes.” T’Challa stood and walked over to another part of the room, grabbing Stephanie’s two bags. “Come, I had one prepared after she arrived.”

They walked down the halls, Bucky basically carrying her without stressing his metal arm. When T’Challa opened a door and walked in, he set the bags down on a table and turned on the light. “Do you need anything else?”

“I’m staying with her,” Bucky stated in a tone that brokered no arguments.

“I would expect nothing less.” T’Challa headed for the door, then turned back. “Bucky, for what it’s worth, Stephanie seems like a good woman.”

After he’d left, Bucky took her over to the bed, sitting her down on it. Crouching down, he carefully took off her shoes, then lifted her legs with his flesh arm, scooting them onto the bed. After, he kicked off his own shoes and climbed onto the bed, laying on his back, and pulled her toward him, wrapping his flesh arm around her. “Sleep sweetheart, we can discuss everything in the morning.”

“Bucky,” she muttered softly, eyes fluttering closed. “Am I really here?”

“Yes, doll. You’re really here.” Turning his head, he pressed a soft kiss to her hair. “I know you’re exhausted, but I’m happier than I’ve been in a really long time. ” When he heard her soft breathing and didn’t get a response, a smile crossed over his face. “I’m really glad you’re here.”


	15. Party of Four

2018

Stirring, Stephanie woke up half on top of a hard warm body, forgetting for a moment where she was. When her eyes opened, she saw Bucky looking down at her, a soft smile on his face. Everything came rushing back. Leaving Chris, Sebastian, and her grandfather behind, visiting Loki, Wanda shooting her power at her… Seeing his blue eyes helped her remember everything. “Hey,” she said softly.

“Mornin’ beautiful.” Bucky stared into her hazel eyes, still unable to believe he actually got to be with the woman who had made him feel things he thought he couldn’t, all without ever meeting her. “How are you feeling?”

“Pain’s gone,” she muttered, burying her face against his chest. Wrapping her arm more tightly around his waist, she snuggled as close as she could get. “Not as exhausted either.”

“What happened?” He ran his flesh hand down her hair, sighing contentedly.

Not wanting to move, Stephanie turned her face just enough that she could talk to him. “There are some things you should probably know, unless T’Challa or Shuri told you.”

“Nope. They didn’t tell me anything. Except for Shuri yelling at me for wanting to carry you last night, all I know is that you were in pain.”

“Fuck,” she muttered, really not wanting to have to explain everything. With every person they were going to find, she would have to tell them the story all over again. Bucky was the only person she didn’t mind telling, it just wore on her that she was going to have to repeat herself multiple times.

“You don’t have to tell me if…”

“No, I want to.” Pulling away, she sat up on the bed, looking anywhere but at his face, noticing his shoulder wrapped in gauze. “Fuck, I should be asking if you’re okay.”

Bucky sat up as well, moving his metal arm slightly, giving a nearly imperceptible wince. “It aches a little, but Shuri said it will be healed in a couple of days. I just have to wear a sling to hold it up so the bone grafts can heal and the skin doesn’t rip away from the arm.” He moved his back against the headboard and opened his flesh arm, waiting for her to snuggle next to him. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I’m gonna worry, Bucky. I’ve…” She gulped, glad she wasn’t looking into his eyes. “Apparently, I’m an oracle.”

When she paused, he asked, “What’s that?”

“Do you remember the first time you felt me?”

“Yeah.” Bucky’s voice grew wistful as he reminisced. “I don’t know the year, but I’ve had a lot of time to think about it since it happened. They had brought me out of storage because I was the…”

“Winter Soldier,” she finished for him.

“The Winter Soldier,” he repeated quietly, not asking how she knew about that side of him. “What’s funny is that the first time I felt your emotions, you reminded me of Steve.”

“How…?”

“You felt so young. Even though I didn’t remember him at the time, there was something about you that brought him to the forefront of my mind.” He trailed his fingers up and down her arm, trying to explain what he felt. “When I focused on you, your emotions got so much stronger. God, you felt so young. Once I realized that whatever I was feeling felt feminine, a memory of Becca snuck into my brain for a brief moment.”

“I reminded you of your sister?”

“Yeah. Becca was my best friend… well, other than Steve, that is. When I was… when I joined the army, she was who I missed the most.”

Lifting her hand, she laid it over his on her opposite arm, squeezing gently. “I know you were drafted, Bucky, and I should probably explain how I know.” Pulling his arm around tighter her so it felt like she was being hugged, Stephanie sighed. “When I was thirteen, I started having visions of you and Steve. The first one I ever had was of Zola injecting the serum into you, then attaching you to the machine to wipe your memory before Steve rescued you.” When he tensed, she closed her eyes and swallowed hard. “Ever since then, I’ve had visions of both the past and future of this world, mostly about you and Steve, although I used to have visions of the others as well.”

“But how did I feel you?”

“I always thought that they were visions, never understanding how it was that you seemed to know I was there.” Tilting her head up to look at him, the corner of her mouth quirked up slightly when she saw that he didn’t seem upset. “But because I never told my grandfather that I felt exhausted after them, nor did I tell him that you felt me, he didn’t tell me that I was actually astral projecting into your universe.”

“Wait, what do you mean, my universe?”

Taking a deep breath, she said quickly, “I’m not from your universe. My great-grandmother was, but I’m from… I’m from another Earth. In my world, you guys are only in comics and movies. Although, that’s because my grandfather began having the visions when he was thirteen. So I know about Project Rebirth, the train, Annabelle, your favorite color…”

“You know about Annabelle?” Bucky’s voice rose in surprise. “No one knows about her except me and Steve.”

“Is my backpack in here?” she inquired, looking around the room. Seeing it on the table, she climbed off the bed and pawed through the folders in there, pulling out the one she was looking for. After she’d sat back down in the crook of his arm, she prefaced opening it by saying, “I took up drawing before the visions, but transitioned from comic style to realistic when I realized that it would be easier for me to keep track of your stories if I could see things the same awake as asleep.” Opening the portfolio, she flipped through the pages until she got to the one she’d shown Chris of Annabelle, where she was naked on the bed, a look of satisfaction on her face. “Annabelle.”

“Okay, well… I’ve never seen her like this, but she was definitely satisfied after spending the night with Steve. I remember her saying…”

“That she wasn’t expecting him to be such a handful?” Stephanie chuckled. “I didn’t see the sex, but I did see her like this after. She seemed really happy. Now, Claire, she seemed really happy too.”

Bucky’s face pinkened. “How many women did you see?”

“Only a few, but the ones I remember distinctly are Claire and Sophia.”

“Thank God,” he muttered.

Turning, she laid a hand against his scruffy cheek. “I know that we’re not anything, but…”

“Doll,” he interrupted firmly, “when you were a ghost I told you that I was falling for you. That hasn’t changed just because I figured out you’re real.”

“But you don’t know me,” she whispered.

“I’ll get to know you.” He turned his face so he could press a kiss to her palm. “We may not be in a relationship yet, but I plan on wooing you and convincing you we belong together.”

Ignoring his last statement, even though it made her cheeks heat up, she continued with what she’d originally been going to say. “Bucky, you were born in 1917, I don’t expect that you’ve been celibate for the last hundred years. Hell, I’m thirty-one, I’ve slept with… well, the number of people I’ve slept with isn’t important.” She pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose. “But don’t worry. I really enjoyed watching you with Sophia.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said cockily. “I felt you, remember?”

“Alright, as much fun as talking about sex is, we need to start finding the others. The bad thing is coming and…”

“What happened last night?”

Leaning forward, she pressed her forehead against his shoulder. “I astral projected to Wanda and she freaked out, shooting her magic at me. Nothing else has been able to harm me, so I didn’t think it would touch me, but it did. I was already exhausted because astral projecting wears me out, and her magic is telepathic in nature so I think that’s why it hurt me.” Lifting her head, she gave him a stern look. “No being upset with her. She was just protecting…”

“Doll, I’m not mad at Wanda.” When she gave him a shocked look, he chuckled. “I’m not. Wanda hates hurting people. She’s just easily freaked out after everything that happened between Steve and Tony, not to mention the boat prison and HYDRA. And before you ask, I’m not upset with you either. I wish you had waited for me to wake up, but I understand why you didn’t.” Trailing his fingers down the side of her face, he moved his fingers to the back of her head, tangled them in her hair, and dragged her forward so he could kiss her softly. “Do you know where she is?”

“The UK somewhere. I saw a cathedral I recognized, so if I can get access to the internet or Shuri, I should be able to figure out which one it was.”

“Well, let’s get up and go find the kid then.”

\--------------------

Placing a finger on the screen, Stephanie exclaimed, “That one!”

Shuri looked at the picture, then searched through the database to find out more information on it. “St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. Is this where you saw them?”

“Not exactly.” Closing her eyes, Stephanie tried to remember everything she saw. “I was walking around, trying to find her and saw the spire off in the distance, maybe a mile or so away. She and Vision were behind me, laughing.” Turning to Bucky, who looked irritated because Shuri had made him wear a sling for his arm, she asked, “When can we leave?”

“Whenever you want, doll.”

“Wait… how are we supposed to get there?” Laying a hand on her forehead, she sighed heavily. “Driving isn’t going to work because it will take too long. Airports are out of the question too, for multiple reasons, the least of which is that I don’t exist here. Then there’s…”

“If you’ll stop talking for a moment,” T’Challa interrupted wearily. They all turned toward him, surprised that he had managed to sneak in without them realizing. “You can take one of the jets. I'll send a pilot with you as well.”

“I’m going too, brother,” Shuri stated, giggling when both he and Bucky glared at her. “What?! I know about Bucky’s arm, so if there’s an issue with it, I’m the best person for them to have along. Plus, my knowledge of oracles is extensive so I can help Stephanie figure out how to make her powers work.” There was a devious twinkle in her eye as she added, “And of course, the most important reason… it will be fun!!”

“Shuri,” he groaned, massaging the bridge of his nose. “Bucky and Stephanie don’t want to have a child following them around.”

As she looked at Bucky, he held up his flesh hand as the other one was still in a sling. “Don’t give me those eyes, kid. Your brother is the one with the decision making power, not me.”

Stephanie chuckled when Shuri tried it on her. “As much as I would love to learn more about my powers, if your brother says you can’t come, I’m not going to force him.”

Finally, she looked back at her brother, arms crossed over her chest. “Brother, I want to go. You never let me do anything. Besides, Peter and I have been talking a lot and I want to meet him in person.” She stuck out her lower lip, not even bothering to hide her disappointment. “Please, brother,” she pleaded. “Please, I want to help.”

Knowing he would hear no end of whining from his teenage sister if he didn’t let her go, he sighed. “Will you promise to listen to whatever Bucky says?”

“Yes!!” she exclaimed happily.

“Will you promise to stay out of any fighting that may happen?”

It took her a few seconds to reply, a little more sullenly this time. “Yes.”

“Will you promise to check in with me on a daily basis so I know you’re alright?”

“Fine, whatever you want.” She clasped her hands together, a big smile crossing over her face. “Are you really going to let me go, brother?”

“I’m sending Okoye with you.” Looking at Bucky, he added, “She can pilot, so you won’t need anyone else. If I’m going to send my sister on this excursion, I want her to be protected.”

“Okoye is a great warrior, she is more than welcome to join us.” Bucky laid his flesh hand on Stephanie’s back, rubbing lightly. “But I’m going to defer to Steph on this. She’s the one that wants to get the gang all back together.”

Shutting her eyes briefly, Stephanie swallowed a sigh. This wasn’t something she had foreseen before coming to this reality, having to make decisions that could affect people other than the Avengers. But if Shuri could really help her learn to control her powers, if she could teach her how to not feel exhausted each time she astral projected to someone... “Do you really think you can help me learn to control this?”

“If anyone can, it’s me,” she answered confidently. “I have a book my mother read to me when I was a child, it’s all about oracles.”

“If T’Challa says it’s okay you can come.”

“Yay!!” Shuri bounded over to give Stephanie a hug, stopping before wrapping her arms around her. “Sorry, I forgot for a second.”

“Hopefully, you can help with that too. I’d really like to be able to touch people without passing out.”

“You didn’t pass out when Loki touched you,” T’Challa reminded her, his voice gentle.

“No, I just went all Oracle on him.” Stephanie leaned against Bucky, grabbing his flesh arm and pulling it around her waist. “I want to be normal. To be able to touch and love and… and…”

Shuri’s face softened as she watched them interact, happy that the White Wolf had found someone that made him happy. She murmured, “Bucky can touch you.”

Stephanie didn’t hear her but Bucky did, tightening his arm around the woman he felt so much for. “I think this discussion can wait. We should head to Edinburgh to get Wanda and Vision, then go to New York. Fury will know where Steve and Nat are since they keep in contact with him.” Pressing a kiss to her head, he released her and tugged at the sling, trying to make it a little more comfortable. “Convincing Wanda to go back to the States after everything that happened will be hard. She was pretty brutalized by the Accords.”

“I’ve got a plan for that,” Stephanie muttered, glancing to where they had put their bags. “Hopefully, she’ll listen, because she and Vision are two of the strongest Avengers, surpassed only by Carol.”

“She’ll listen. It’s just a matter of taking her back to Tony who was a driving force behind the Accords.” Trailing his fingers down Stephanie’s back, he sighed happily. “We should get going.”

“As Bucky says, we should make haste,” Okoye said, dressed in a pair of black slacks and a red long-sleeved button-down, carrying two duffel bags. “The jet is being fueled as we speak and I packed a bag for Princess Shuri.” Hefting it in one hand, she grinned. “Don’t worry, Princess, I made sure to pack your favorite clothes. T’Challa had a feeling that you would insist on accompanying us.”


	16. Edinburgh

2018

“How are you feeling?” Bucky asked, intertwining his flesh fingers with Stephanie’s. On the plane ride to Edinburgh, she’d slept the entire way, which had driven Shuri nuts. She had wanted to start the training regimen right away, but when Stephanie had leaned against him closing her eyes, she’d promptly fallen asleep.

“You shouldn’t have let me sleep so long,” Stephanie muttered, moving out of the way of an older gentleman walking down the sidewalk. “I got enough sleep last night.”

Bucky chuckled. “You must have been tired, doll, you fell asleep within seconds on the plane.”

“I always sleep when I fly,” she groused, eyes darting around, trying to figure out where she’d been in the vision. “Can’t help it.” When they reached a place that looked familiar, she stopped. “This is where I was when… when Wanda used her power on me.”

“Maybe we should see if you can find her again.” When she glared at him, he glared right back. “Steph, I know she shot her power at you last time, but if we don’t do something we’ll end up sitting here for hours. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to get this done so we can go find the rest of the gang.” His face fell and he sighed. “The last time I was in the UK, I… I... I killed someone important. I really don’t want to be here if it’s not necessary.”

“Who did you…” she started to ask, voice trailing off when she remembered that HYDRA had used him as an assassin, and the last important person to be killed in England was Princess Diana. “Let’s find a place to sit and I’ll try to find her.” 

They continued walking for a bit until they came to a small park with benches. Sitting down, Stephanie handed Bucky the portfolio she’d brought with the picture in it to show Wanda. Once he’d joined her, sitting far enough away that she wouldn’t accidentally touch him, she said, “Five minutes. Wake me up in five minutes. If I haven’t found her by then, I won’t be able to.”

“Why don’t you just wake yourself?”

Changing to a cross-legged position, she sighed. “I don’t know how. Whenever I’ve done this before, it’s always been an outside source that woke me up.”

“Fine, five minutes.” Bucky watched as she closed her eyes, leaning back against the bench. When her eyes opened again, they looked completely glassed over, like she had cataracts. A soft glow emanated from them as she stared off into the distance. Taking out his phone, he stared at it, willing the time to pass quickly. He was worried that Wanda would hurt her again, and no matter how much he loved that little redhead, if she hurt Stephanie… he wasn’t sure he could forgive her if she hurt her again.

When the phone said that five minutes had passed, he put it back in his pocket and reached out with his flesh hand to stroke her cheek. “Doll, I need you to wake up.” Her eyes fluttered but didn’t change back to their normal hazel hue. His hand drifted down to her shoulder and he started shaking her, just hard enough that she glared at him when her eyes changed back. “I was worried.”

“I know where they are,” she mumbled, trying to hide a yawn. “Fuck, I really need Shuri to teach me how to not be exhausted after that.” Standing, Stephanie swayed slightly, then gripped the back of the bench to help herself stay upright. “She didn’t see me this time. I made sure to stay far enough away. They’re in an apartment building not that far from here.”

Bucky stood, holding the portfolio. “Take this, then let me help you walk.”

“I can walk just fine on my own,” she argued. “You pulled the same shit with Steve after Zola…” Her voice trailed off and she sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t use my visions against you, it’s not fair.”

“Steph, doll…” He moved over to her, setting the portfolio down on the bench so he could cup her cheek, rubbing his thumb on her skin. “Don’t ever apologize for knowing things that others don’t. I like the fact that you know me so well, it makes it so I don’t have to explain why I don’t like being tied down or why I don’t like small spaces.”

“Or that your favorite color is the pink of the sunset?” she asked cheekily. When his cheeks flushed, she pressed a kiss to his palm then picked up her portfolio. Slipping her arm through his, she turned him in the direction of the apartment building. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep that tidbit to myself.”

“I’m not ashamed of it,” he denied, “I’m just surprised you knew that.”

“You were… God, I think you were eight or nine, and you were sitting with your mother who was heavily pregnant at the time.” As they turned down the street where Wanda’s hideout was, Stephanie was grateful that no one here knew Bucky. Having to worry about him being captured would have been difficult. “You guys were sitting on a park bench, just watching the sunset, one of the simple pleasures that were still left during that time. As the sky changed color, you pointed to the pink and said, ‘Mama, that’s my favorite.’ She looked down at you, a soft smile on her face. ‘Which one, my darling boy?’ And you responded, ‘The pink.’ She asked you if you liked all pink, and you looked up at her with this irritated expression and sighed in an overly dramatic fashion, telling her that no, you didn’t love all pink, just that pink.”

“I miss her,” he said quietly.

“She was a good woman… a good mother… and she loved you.” Stopping at the base of a set of stairs, she turned to face him and stood on her toes, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. “Remind me later that I have a picture to show you, okay?” He nodded and she turned to head up the stairs. “They’re in here.”

After entering the building and moving toward the apartment door, Bucky moved in front of her and knocked on the door, waiting for an answer. When one didn’t come, he sighed and tried again. “Wanda, it’s Bucky. Please answer the door.”

The door opened a crack and Vision looked out, seeing Bucky standing there he opened it the rest of the way. “Sergeant Barnes, it is good to see you again. Why are you here?”

“I feel the presence again, Vis.” Wanda sounded terrified. “We need to get out of here.”

“Wanda, that’s…” Bucky groaned, swiping his free hand over his face. “Vision, can we come in?”

“We?” Vision glanced at the woman next to Bucky, taking in her appearance. Looking her up and down, he determined her threat level to be negligible and held out his hand for her to shake. When she didn’t, his head cocked to the side. “I have not met you before.”

“Stephanie Lee,” she muttered. “Can we come in? It would be easier… inside.” A little louder, she said, “I’m the presence. I’m sorry if I freaked you out before.”

“Let them in, Vis,” Wanda said wearily.

Moving out of the way, he gestured for them to enter. Bucky did first, followed by Stephanie. Once they were inside and Vision shut the door, he looked at Bucky’s arm in the sling and cocked his head to the side again. “Sergeant Barnes, was your arm not cut off by Mr. Stark two years ago?”

Bucky sighed heavily. “Vision, it’s Bucky. Just plain old, simple Bucky. Please, for the love of all that’s holy, stop calling me Sergeant Barnes.” Laying his flesh hand on the sling, he nodded. “It was. But Shuri made me a new one, it’ll be healed in a couple of days.”

Stepping out of the bedroom, Wanda moved wearily into the room, stopping behind Vision. Peering from behind him, she looked at Stephanie, taking in her black leggings and pink sweater, her long brown hair in a braid hanging over her shoulder. Like before, all she could feel coming off of her were non-threatening emotions, but she still wasn’t sure about her. Glancing at Bucky, she raised an eyebrow. “You brought someone I don’t know.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” he stated simply.

To show that she trusted Bucky, she ignored the woman at his side. “Do you trust her?”

“Implicitly.”

“You don’t know me, Bucky,” Stephanie reminded him. “I know you’ve felt me for years, but that’s not the same as knowing me. You shouldn’t trust me implicitly, I wouldn’t.”

“Doll…”

“No, you can’t possibly trust me like that yet.” She stepped away from him, holding the portfolio closer to her chest. “I’m sorry I frightened you before, but I needed to find you. Honestly, I didn’t expect you to be able to see me, but I should have realized with your telepathic abilities that you would…”

“How do you know about my powers?” There was no anger in Wanda’s voice, just curiosity. “The only people who know about that are…”

“HYDRA and the Avengers, I know.” Stepping forward, Stephanie tried to look as non-threatening as possible and opened the portfolio, turning the pages until she came to the images she wanted to show her. “I’m an oracle, so I can see the…”

“I know what oracles are, my handlers were trying to recreate them because they died out long ago.”

“I’ve already heard that, and it would take too long to explain why that's wrong. But I am an oracle, and you knowing what they are will make this easier to explain.” She held out the portfolio. “Can I show you something?” Wanda nodded so she walked over, standing next to her so she could show her the two pictures. Pointing at the first one, which showed Wanda and Pietro as young kids, Wanda using her powers to levitate blocks, she explained, “When I was a teenager, I had visions of all of the Avengers, that includes you and Pietro. I think this is when they were testing you to determine the extent of your powers.” She pointed to the second picture, which showed Wanda crying while holding Thanos back with her power, while at the same time trying to destroy the mind stone in Vision’s head. “This is in the future. The future that I’m trying to help stop. This is why we’re here, so we can get the team back together again.”

Wanda stared at both pictures, the raw emotion in them making her want to cry. The scene with Pietro, she remembered it like it was yesterday. Stephanie would have been too young to be a part of HYDRA at the time, and she definitely would have remembered seeing her there. It was the second picture that confused her. She’d never used her powers in such a way before, holding back an enemy. Also, she couldn’t figure out why she looked so upset while killing Vision. He was her friend, but the tears running down her cheeks in the drawing implied more. Looking away from the book, she shut her eyes, trying to forget what she’d seen. “Do I really have to go back to Tony?” she murmured. “I really don’t want anything to do with him.”

Bucky walked over and put his flesh arm around Wanda, pulling her against his chest. “Kid, I get it, I really do. I don’t want to go back to Tony either. But if Steph is saying we need the team together, I’m guessing that whatever is coming is worse than seeing him.” He rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. “Even if I have to fight him again I won’t let him hurt you, I promise.”

“Fine. Let me grab my bag.”

Once she was gone, Vision looked at Bucky, his tone harsh. “I will not allow Tony to lock her up again. Nor will I allow him to collar her.”

“She was collared?” he whispered, shocked that Tony would have allowed that to happen. While Tony had been a proponent of the Accords, he couldn’t imagine him being okay with them locking someone who was barely out of her teens up in a collar.

“Yes,” he replied simply. “They put her in an electric shock collar and a straight jacket to keep her from using her powers. She was tortured by the people that Tony thought would be appropriate to control those with superhuman abilities.”

“Fuck.”

Laying a hand on his back, Stephanie interjected, “Look, we can all hate on Tony later. Right now, we need to figure out where Fury is. He’s key to finding Steve, Natasha, and Sam.”

“Director Fury and his cohorts are located at 10089 Fifteenth Avenue Southeast.” Vision took in their shocked expressions, chuckling lightly, knowing that was the correct response. “Unfortunately, I do not have the current location for Captain Rogers and the others. Director Fury has kept the same location since the helicarrier incident, whereas Captain Rogers has been on the move the past two years. He has not kept me apprised of his location.”

Wanda came out with a small bag slung over her shoulder. “We should get out of here. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can go back into hiding again.”

“We have rooms at a hotel a few miles from here. Okoye needs to sleep before we can take the jet to the States.”

“Okoye?” Wanda raised an eyebrow. “Why is Okoye here?”

“Shuri decided to come as well.” When Wanda gave him another questioning look, he sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was get into a discussion on why the Wakandan’s were there with them. “Look, we’ll tell you everything on the ride to the States tomorrow. Right now, let’s just go back to the hotel so we can get a full night's sleep.”


	17. Desire

2018

Stephanie turned the doorknob to their hotel room, pushing the door open and turning on the light as she walked in. Bucky followed close behind, putting the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the handle before shutting and locking it. When she’d put the portfolio back into her backpack, he moved behind her and pressed his front to her back, wrapping his flesh arm around her waist. Kissing the side of her neck, he mumbled, “I’m really glad you’re here.”

Turning in his arm, she placed hers on either side of his neck, holding one wrist with the other hand as she pressed a kiss to his lips. “I’m really glad I’m here too.” When she felt him growing hard against her, she stilled, pulling back slightly. “Bucky, you’re healing.”

“I don’t feel any pain, doll.” He drew her closer again, nuzzling the side of her neck. “God, I’ve been wanting to do this for so long.” Groaning, he ran his flesh hand down her back until it cupped her ass, pressing her harder against his aching flesh.

“Bucky,” she moaned. “As much as I want this, you need to heal. We should wait… at least for a couple more days.”

“Steph, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Bucky took a step back, dropping his hand away from her. If there was one thing he had learned in his many years of not being in control of his own actions, it was that he would never force anyone to do something they didn’t want.

Reaching up, Stephanie trailed her fingers over his cheek and into his hair. “I want this. God, I want this. But Shuri said you need to heal. I don’t want to…” She didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence because Bucky leaned down and took her lips in a fiery kiss.

His flesh hand returned to her ass, molding her curves to his hard body. She met his passion with the same ferocity, rising on her toes to curl her fingers at the nape of his neck, licking into his mouth to thrust her tongue against his. God, he just wanted to pick her up, throw her onto the bed, and sink his cock into… Wrenching away with a gasp, he cupped her cheek, resting his forehead to hers. “Maybe…” he breathed roughly. “Maybe you should go get ready for bed.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Stepping back from him, she took several deep breaths, trying to cool down her arousal. Turning to her duffel bag, she dug inside until she found one of her larger t-shirts, gripping it in her hand, she headed for the bathroom not looking back at him. If she had, she would have just said fuck it and jumped him.

Inside of the bathroom, the shirt slipped out of her hand to the floor and she gripped the granite countertop, staring at her reflection in the mirror. The lust in her eyes was obvious, her pupils nearly covering the hazel of her irises. But at the same time, she was so confused. It had seemed like he wanted her as much as she wanted him, but when he pulled away… maybe he didn’t really want her. God, what was she doing? This was a bad idea for so many reasons. She wasn’t here to fuck Bucky, that wasn’t why she came to their world. The upcoming battle with Thanos had been her main motivation for coming. If she could turn the tide of war in their favor, she wanted to try.

Taking several deep breaths, she stood up, taking off all her clothes except for her panties, then picked up the t-shirt and put it on. Smoothing it over her hips, she tried to pull it down a little farther, but it wasn’t long enough to do more than come just past her ass. In the days after she’d made her decision, she hadn’t given much thought on what to pack, so she’d only brought clothes for the daytime. Normally, she slept naked, not liking how clothes would twist and constrict her during the night. But it just didn’t seem right not to wear something when laying next to him in bed.

Picking up her other clothes, she left the bathroom, not looking at him sitting on the edge of the mattress. After placing them down, she kept her back to him, trying to stop the tears that threatened to spill. Her emotions seemed overwhelming, confusing the hell out of her. She wanted to kiss him, but at the same time, all she wanted to do was run out of the room and go hide with Shuri and Okoye.

“Doll?” Bucky queried, his voice soft. “You okay?”

All she could do was nod. When the springs of the bed squeaked, she felt a body behind her, and Bucky’s hand rested on her shoulder. She longed to lean back, to feel his hard body pressing against hers, to tell him all of the things she’d kept to herself for so many years. But she couldn’t do that to someone who didn’t really want her.

After so many years of having her visit as an apparition, he could still sense some of the emotions emanating from her. They weren’t as strong as before, but he could tell that she was feeling sad. “Doll, will you look at me?” When she shook her head, he moved closer, bending down to press a kiss to her shoulder. “Steph, sweetheart, look at me. Please.” When she turned and he saw her eyes glistening with unshed tears, it took all his willpower to not pull her into his arms. “Stephanie, what’s going on? Talk to me, doll.”

“I… I…” She couldn’t tell him, couldn’t do that to him. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. And I have a feeling it’s my fault.” When she shook her head, he reached up and cupped her cheek, stopping her head from moving. When a tear rolled down her face, he rubbed it away with his thumb. “God, I wish you would tell me what I did wrong so I could fix it. Did I hurt you earlier?” She shook her head. “Did I push you further than you wanted to go?” When she shook her head again and closed her eyes, he figured it out. “I wasn’t rejecting you, doll. All I was doing was putting this on hold for a day or two.”

“It’s fine,” she muttered, still not looking at him.

Mumbling a curse under his breath, he grabbed her hand and brought it to the front of his pants, placing it gently against his still hard cock. “I want you, doll, so fucking much. But if we do this tonight, I won’t be able to do what I really want with you. And Steph, I want to make you feel good. With my arm, I won’t be able to…”

Looking up, Stephanie took in the pained expression on his face which clashed with the hardness of his cock. Rubbing lightly, she sighed, “I don’t need all that, Bucky. I just want you.” Removing her hand from his pants, she raised both arms and untied the knot holding his arm in the sling. Taking it off carefully, she tossed it to the floor before starting to unbutton his shirt. When she’d finished, she slipped her hands under the fabric and pushed the material over his shoulders and off his arms. His left shoulder was still covered in gauze and she touched it gently. “Can I…”

He nodded, unable to speak. She started to unwrap the gauze, frowning as she saw the red scars around the metal. They looked angry and painful, laying on top of the older scars from his original appendage. Her touch feather-light, she trailed her fingers over the flesh and leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the skin near it. When he started to lift his metal arm, she pulled back, glaring at him. “Don’t you dare. Shuri said you shouldn’t use it for a few days, so you’re not going to.” Her hands drifted down his chest to his pants and she undid them, looking into his eyes as he did. “If we’re going to do this, I’m going to have to be in control.” Knowing that he still had leftover trauma from what HYDRA did to him, she softened her tone. “Is that going to be okay?”

She sounded so unsure, so wary, that he brought up his flesh hand and cupped her face. “Doll, if you’re asking if I mind you being on top, I definitely don’t. I just… I wish I could make this perfect for you.”

Trailing her fingertips down his chest, she moved them under the waistband of his pants, mouth quirking up at his sharp intake of breath. “Honey, perfection is overrated. I don’t want perfect... I want you.” Starting to push his pants down, she looked in his eyes, asking seriously, “Is this okay?”

“Fuck,” he groaned, voice hoarse. “If you don’t, I will.”

Giggling, she grasped the waistband of both pieces of clothing and pulled them down as she crouched on the floor. She couldn’t help but keep her eyes on his cock as she moved down to a kneeling position, carefully lifting each of his feet one at a time to pull his clothes the rest of the way off. Staying in that position, she dragged her hands up the outside of his legs to his hips, then drew one hand forward until she could grip his cock and stroke it lightly. “I wanna suck your cock, but that’s going to wait until next time.”

“Fuck, doll,” he groaned as she stood, still keeping a grip on his cock. Each stroke made him moan, the tip of her tongue poking out of her mouth a distraction. “Take off your clothes.”

“In a second.” Releasing him, she placed a hand on his chest and pushed lightly. “Lay on the bed.” She waited until he’d situated himself on the bed, head on the pillow. Moving over to the foot of the bed, she lifted her shirt slightly and slid her fingers under the elastic of her panties, pushing them down and over her hips and kicking them to the side of the room. The feral look in his eyes sent a pulse of pleasure through her, but she didn’t move any closer. Thankful that the shirt still covered everything, she climbed onto the bed and straddled his hips, placing her wet pussy directly on top of his cock, rubbing against him. When his hands came up to her hips, she stopped and lifted herself off his body. “Bucky, what did I say about your arm?”

“I want to touch you,” he pouted.

“Next time, lover,” she teased. Lowering herself back down, she undulated her hips back and forth slowly, enjoying the groan from deep in his throat. “Put your hands flat on the bed and grip the sheets.” When he did, she leaned over and pressed a light kiss to his lips. “Next time you can touch me however the hell you want, but if you stop gripping the sheets, I’ll stop. Understand?”

“Steph…” he groaned, thrusting his hips up but not moving his hands. “Fuck.”

Stopping her movements, she looked into his beautiful blue eyes and caressed his cheek with a hand. “No, Bucky. I want you to touch me, God, do I want you to touch me. But tonight, I’m in control.” She teased him a little by rolling her hips on his cock. “Can you let me do that? Can you keep your hands on the sheets so I can fuck your brains out?”

Bucky’s eyes unfocused and he gulped, nodding. When she sat back up, pressing her wet pussy harder against his cock it took everything he had to not lift her up so he could slip inside of her. Letting out a guttural groan, he rasped out, “Take off your shirt, doll.”

Slowly, Stephanie traced her fingers up her thighs to the bottom of her shirt, gripping the material in her hands. “You want me to take this off?” She lifted it a little more, revealing the front of her pelvis, but stopping at her hips. “Do you want it allllll the way off?” God, when he groaned and swallowed hard, she gave up all pretense of trying to be sexy and whipped it over her head, tossing it onto the floor.

“God, I want to touch you so fucking bad.” Bucky drank her in with his eyes, memorizing every inch of her skin. From the smattering of freckles over where her decolletage would be, to the small silver ring in her belly button, to the black and white flower tattoo on her shoulder. “You’re so beautiful.”

“I want you to touch me too,” she moaned, reaching up to cup her own breasts, hips starting to move on his cock again. Capturing her nipples between thumbs and forefingers, she tweaked them slightly. “I’m just going to pretend my hands are yours.”

“Doll, please…” He thrust his hips again, attempting to slip inside of her.

Taking pity on him, she raised her hips and gripped his cock in one hand, lining up the tip with her entrance. Slowly, she lowered down on him, moaning as he stretched her. “Goddamn, Bucky. I knew you were big… but fuuuucccck.” Bottoming out, she sat there for a minute to get used to him. When she started rotating her hips again, it was with shallow movements, his cock withdrawing an inch before reentering her. She trailed her hands back up her torso to her chest, cupping her breasts like she imagined he would.

Bucky watched the expressions she made, her moans of pleasure making him impossibly harder. When she started lifting up and then moving back down, he would thrust up in time with her downward movements. “Fuck, doll…”

Leaning back slightly, she moved her hands from her breasts to his thighs and started fucking him harder, lifting almost all the way off his cock before thrusting down hard. Every stroke he rubbed against her g-spot, hitting her cervix at the end of each movement. “Fuck, Bucky… I need… Fuck…” God, she wished she hadn’t told him not to touch her, but she didn’t want him to hurt his arm.

Releasing the sheet in his flesh hand, Bucky brought it up to her thigh, squeezing lightly. “Can you come for me, doll?” Her eyes popped open, looking at him as she moved up and down. He moved his hand between her legs, rubbing at her engorged clit with his fingers. “God, you’re so beautiful,” he rasped hoarsely. “I wanna hear you scream my name.”

“Bucky,” she moaned, moving as fast and hard as she could. “So close… so close…” Her breathing grew ragged as her orgasm approached. “Want you to come with me.”

“M’close,” he mumbled, the feeling of her tight pussy clenching on him almost too much sensation. When he knew she was almost there, he started rubbing her clit a little faster and growled, “Come for me.”

Thrusting down one more time, Stephanie’s body started shaking with the force of her orgasm, her pussy clenching hard on Bucky’s cock as she came screaming, “BUCKY!!” As she did, Bucky’s hips jutted off the bed and he came as well, growling as his hand moved to her hip, digging into her flesh. 

Falling forward, Stephanie rested against his hard chest as he used his flesh hand to rub her back. It took her several long seconds before she could even focus. “That was worth the wait,” she murmured.

“Wait?”

“Um…” She tried to come up with a plausible explanation other than being in love with him for years. She sighed, “Can we talk about that later? I promise one of these days I’ll tell you everything, just… not right now.”

“Sweetheart, I’m not going to push you to tell me anything.”

Yawning, she crawled off of him, standing next to the bed and leaning down to kiss him. “I’m gonna grab a washcloth to clean up, then we can go to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be busy.”

Before she walked away, Bucky grabbed her hand, holding her in place. “Stephanie, I really am glad you’re here. I know there’s something bad coming, and the next couple of weeks are going to suck trying to get everyone back together, but having you here makes me really happy. I…” Closing his eyes for a brief moment, he took a deep breath. “When I told you I was falling for you, I meant it.”

Kneeling on the bed, she leaned over him and kissed him deeply, tongue dancing against his. When she pulled back they were both breathless. “I’m falling for you too, Bucky. Have been for a long while.”


	18. Training

2018 

Waking at the same time he did every day, Bucky pushed himself up so he could look at the beautiful woman in his arms. She was lying on her right side, the tattoo on her left arm prominent, covering almost all the way from her shoulder to her elbow. Trailing his fingers over the black outlines of flowers, they stopped in the middle where the tattoo was created to look as if her skin had been torn revealing what was underneath. It was the only part done in color, looking exactly like his old arm. He wanted to wake her up, ask her about it, but she had been so tired the past couple of days it wasn’t fair to get her up early just to satiate his curiosity.

When she stirred, he stilled, but she just sighed and pushed herself closer to him. There were many different types of flowers, most he recognized the names of but couldn't think as to why she would have them. There was one in particular though that looked really familiar. Tracing his finger over it, he thought for a couple of minutes, then it came to him… before his mother died, when he and his father would go through Central Park, they would stop by the hawthorn tree and he would pluck a couple of flowers to give to her. They were her favorites - most likely because he gave them to her - and he had always loved the smile it put on her face. 

Eyes tracing over the other flowers, he noticed something peeking out from behind one of the larger ones. But before he could look closer, she groaned and flipped onto her back, hazel eyes meeting his. Leaning down, he pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “Mornin’, doll.”

“Morning,” Stephanie yawned, staring into his blue eyes. Soft light streamed in the window, indicating that it was still really early. “What time is it?”

“Just after six,” he muttered, eyes dropping to her shoulder. He didn’t want to ask, didn’t want her to think he was prying, but curiosity won out. “So, your tattoo…”

When his voice trailed off, Stephanie flushed, hiding her face behind a hand. “Should have known you’d see it eventually.”

“Why…”

“It will take a long time to explain everything, but…” Pushing herself up to a seated position, Stephanie rested her back against the headboard and waited for him to join her. Trailing her fingers over the long since healed marks, a soft smile crossed over her face. “Like I told you before, I’ve had visions of you since I was thirteen. You and Steve starred in a lot of my dreams, letting me see bits and pieces of your lives. Of course, I did see the others as well, but you guys were most of them. The astral projecting into this universe, it just solidified the fact that you were my favorite.”

“Of course I am,” Bucky stated knowingly, a cocky grin on his face.

Smacking his chest light, she frowned playfully. “Don’t be a butthead.”

“Sorry, doll.” He kissed her lips, groaning when she deepened it. Pulling back, he had to forcefully slow his breath to calm down before he tried to sleep with her again. “But why did you get a tattoo of my old arm?”

“To remind me of you.” Looking down at the red star, she traced over it. “I had my vision dreams, but I wanted something tangible because I didn’t know that you were really real.” Stopping, she shook her head. “Okay, maybe that’s not completely true. I believed you were real, just in an alternate universe. But I was certain I’d never get to meet you, and since you and Steve had been my favorites since I could read and my grandfather introduced me to comics, I wanted to show the world my love for you.” Trailing her fingers up to the top of her shoulder, she asked, “Did you notice the shield?”

Grasping her shoulder lightly, he turned her so he could inspect behind the sunflower. It was simplistic, but it was very obviously styled after Steve’s shield. Done in just black outlines, it blended into the flowers so one wouldn’t notice it without looking closer. “And you got this because…”

“Steve also holds a place in my heart, albeit a very different one than you do.” Reaching up, Stephanie cupped Bucky’s cheek, rubbing her fingers over the scruff. “I didn’t get anything for the others, because even though I care about all of you guys, you and Steve mean more to me.” Her fingers reached up and ran through his shoulder-length hair. Changing the subject from her tattoo, because that was a subject she could spend forever talking about, she suggested, “You know, we should see about getting this cut.”

“It’s fine.”

“I know it reminds you of HYDRA, Bucky.” Kissing him softly, she climbed out of the bed and went over to her bag, pulling out another sweater and pulling it over her head. After putting on a pair of underwear, she put on the leggings from the day before, then went back to the bed and pressed a kiss to his metallic shoulder. “I can do it for you, or we can see if one of the others can do it better.”

“You can do it, doll. But I really don’t need…”

“Bucky…” Stephanie stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips as she sighed, shaking her head. “If you really don’t care if your hair is long, fine, you can pretend I never made the suggestion. But remember that I’ve seen parts of your life, I know how they treated you. The hair was just another way for them to control you.” When he didn’t argue, she smiled. “We also need to get your arm wrapped again.”

Chuckling, he climbed off the bed, ignoring his semi-hard cock. Just being around her was enough to turn him on, but they did have a lot that needed to be accomplished, falling back into bed would just make that difficult. “Shuri can do that. I’m sure she has scissors too. If not, there’s probably something on the plane we can use.” Stepping closer, he used his flesh arm to pull her against his body. “You know, you keep being so damn understanding and I’m really going to fall in love with you.”

“Would that be so bad?” she murmured, already knowing the answer.

“Hell no!” Kissing her forehead, he tucked a lock of her long brown hair behind an ear. “I’m already mostly there, doll. Have been since you were just a specter in my life. Getting to know you just makes me realize that I’m closer than I thought.”

Stepping out of his arms, she went over and zipped up her bags, needing to avoid the topic of feelings or they really would end up being late. “Get dressed. Okoye wants to leave by eight since the flight to New York is so long.”

\----------

Sitting cross-legged on one of the large chairs, Stephanie’s eyes kept darting over to where Bucky sat on the couch talking to Wanda and Vision. He kept running a hand through his shorter hair, seeming more relaxed than he had with it longer. As much as he argued about not needing it done, she was glad she’d forced him to let her cut it.

“Stephanie, pay attention,” Shuri chided lightly.

“Sorry.” Turning back to the princess, she flushed. “What were we talking about?”

Shuri sighed, then flipped back several pages in the books. “Oracles were first noted in ancient Greece, where the rulers would visit them before battles.”

“We had something similar in my universe, but they weren’t really oracles, just girls that were kept high on drugs and sexually abused.”

“And these girls were as well, except their prophecies almost always turned out to be true.” Turning a page, Shuri held the book so Stephanie could see as well. “Once the Roman Catholic Church began pushing out of Italy and converting the so-called ‘heathens,’ oracles were vilified as witches and hunted down. This was around the same time they went into hiding.”

“History lessons are fascinating, but I need to learn to control it.” When Shuri’s face fell, Stephanie quickly added, “I want to learn about the history of my people, I really do, but with what’s coming I need to be able to use my power when necessary. That’s all I’m trying to say.”

Shutting the book, Shuri turned her chair and faced Stephanie, resting her arms on her knees, hands palms up. “From what I understand, it’s about intent. I’m not sure I’ll be able to help with the exhaustion, but I think that will dissipate with time and practice. Or at least, I hope it will.”

“Okay, intent.” Staring at the younger woman’s hands, she sighed. “Whenever I would astral project here, it was always after thinking about either Bucky or Steve. That’s also how I visited Wanda and Loki. But how do I touch people without getting overwhelmed.”

Tapping the book on her lap, Shuri replied, “Concentration. Based on everything I’ve read, and the stories my mother told me, it’s all about concentration. I think when you met me you were overwhelmed and didn’t know what would happen because it never had before. Then with Loki, you were exhausted, so when he touched you your powers worked instinctively. You haven’t tried it since, maybe it will work now.”

“What if I can’t control it? What if I get overwhelmed again?” she asked in a hushed tone.

“You’re safe here with us.” Shuri held out her hands. “Just try. You’ve already seen my life, so at least it won’t be new.”

She stared at the outstretched hands for a minute, before swallowing hard and slowly stretching hers out to meet them. Closing her eyes, Stephanie took a deep breath, then laid her palms on Shuri’s. “Princess Shuri, born of Wakanda, daughter of T’Chaka and Ramonda. Ask the question for which you desire an answer.” Her voice held the same ethereal quality that it held when Loki touched her.

Shuri’s eyes widened, seeing the white glow emanating from Stephanie’s normally hazel ones. Seeing it again just proved her right, Stephanie was an oracle. She took a second to think of a question, not wanting to make her see anything too upsetting. Grinning, she giggled. “What will my mother say if I dye my hair pink?”

One future flashed before her eyes. “The answer you seek is one you already have. When you were nine, you convinced T’Challa to help you dye your hair blue. The reaction your mother had then is the same that she would have in this instance.”

“Well, darn.” Shuri pulled her hands away, watching as the light faded from Stephanie’s as she shook her head. “How do you feel?”

“Woozy,” she murmured. “But I didn’t get overwhelming visions, so that’s good.”

“Let’s try someone else.” Standing, Shuri went over to the couch and brought Vision over, forcing him to sit in her chair. “Try him.”

Stephanie looked at the android in front of her, raising an eyebrow. He was wearing his human disguise, but the yellow mind stone still shone beneath the brown hair falling on his forehead. “He’s a machine.”

“Yes, but he’s a sophisticated machine.”

Wanda spoke loudly, “He dreams. I believe he has at least some aspect of a human soul.”

“See!” Shuri exclaimed. “Just try it.”

Heaving a sigh, Stephanie held out her hands. “Alright, Vision, let’s try this.” When he placed his hands in hers, she closed her eyes, but all she felt was the coolness of his faux flesh. “It’s not working,” she groaned, pulling away from him.

“Concentrate.”

“Unlike Wanda, I understand I am limited in my capacity as a human,” Vision intoned calmly. “My organs are synthetic and…”

Shuri interrupted him. “Try again. This time, concentrate.”

Placing her hands back in Vision’s, she took a deep breath, and her vision blurred. “Vision, born of science, son of none. Ask the question for which you desire an answer.”

“I have no questions that require an answer,” he said simply.

Bits of the past and future started to flash through her brain, so she closed her eyes and tried to stop them. “Ask a question, I will provide the answer.”

“You need to ask something,” Shuri muttered. “I’m trying to get her to hone her powers. Just ask something simple.”

“Do I possess a soul?”

Smacking him on the shoulder, Shuri muttered a curse under her breath. “I said an easy question.”

No vision came to Stephanie, but she surmised, “The soul is the incorporeal essence of a living being. You are alive, no matter how you came to be. The psyche comprises the mental abilities of a living being: reason, character, feeling, consciousness, memory, perception… Soul is simply a word created to describe an attribute that is indescribable. This is a question that only you can truly answer.” A small hint of his birth came to her and the corner of her mouth quirked up in a half-smile. “While you are a logical being, created from synthetic parts, the thing that makes you unique is none of those things. If you would consider that a soul, then my answer would be yes.”

Removing his hands from hers, Vision stood and nodded at Shuri, heading back over to Wanda with a dazed expression on his face. Shuri took her seat, bouncing in excitement. Waiting until Stephanie got her bearings, she pointed out, “It worked.”

“Yeah,” she groaned, rubbing the space between her eyes, trying to stop the headache forming. “What the fuck was that question? I thought my head was going to explode.” Leaning back in the chair, she shut her eyes. “I don’t even believe in the soul, not really.”

“You don’t believe in the soul, yet you have visions of the past and future?”

Shuri sounded so incredulous that Stephanie cracked her eyes open. “One is not the same as the other. Honestly, I don’t even know where it came from. It kind of felt like the knowledge was being imparted by something that wasn’t there.” Closing her eyes again, she groaned. “I didn’t think it would work. The other times, it just happened. With Vision, I had to almost force it to come.”

“Hmm…” Shuri stood and went over to the small fridge, getting out a can of soda, then grabbing the bottle of aspirin, taking both over to Stephanie. “Here, take this.” While Stephanie swallowed the pills with a sip of the drink, she sat back down. “Is it possible that you were hindering the knowledge because you didn't think it would work with an android? The book does talk about oracles blocking the abilities, so perhaps…”

“Maybe…” Yawning, she took another sip of the soda, the sugar reviving her slightly. As much as the headache and sudden tiredness made her not want to continue, her desire to figure out her powers was greater than any discomfort. “I should try it again.”

“You’re tired.”

“Yes, but I need to keep practicing. What was it you said? The more I practice, the better I’ll get?”

“Actually, I…”

Sighing, she set the can in the cup holder and rolled her neck from side to side, trying to work out the tension in her muscles. “Just once more, Shuri.”

“Fine,” she relented, getting up to join the group. She walked back with Wanda, forcing her to sit in the chair. “You seem to be able to touch Bucky without activating your powers but I’m not sure why that is. So, the only other person that you haven't touched yet is Wanda… well, Okoye, but she’s flying.”

Stephanie held out her hands. “It’s up to you, Wanda.”

Steeling her expression, Wanda held her hands above Stephanie's. “How does this work?”

“It’s similar to your powers,” Shuri answered. When Wanda’s hands pulled back and her eyes widened, Shuri had to force herself not to sigh. “If I understand how your powers work, when you touch someone you can become telepathically linked with them. While Stephanie’s aren’t exactly the same, for at least part of her abilities it requires physical touch. Assuming she can control it again, she’ll ask you for a question. Then it’s up to you what you ask.”

Placing her hands back, Wanda sighed. “Alright, let’s do this.”

As her palms lowered, Stephanie tried to keep her mind clear and open, not wanting to accidentally put up a block. The second their skin touched she could feel the power emanating from Wanda, but instead of pulling back, she closed her eyes and embraced it, the rush sending a jolt of electricity through her. She could sense more than she ever had before, Wanda's power seeming to amplify her own. “Wanda Marya Maximoff née Lehnsherr, born of Sokovia, blood daughter of Eric and Magda, adopted daughter of Django and Marya. Ask the question for which you desire an answer.”

“My parents weren’t my parents?” she muttered, shocked to learn that the thing she’d been told when she was younger was a lie.

“The parents that you knew were more your parents than those that sired you.” Stephanie’s white eyes opened, staring blankly ahead. “Blood relation does not make a parent. Love, patience, understanding, and care are the things that matter. But this is not the question for which you truly desire an answer. Ask.”

Taking a deep breath, Wanda asked the one thing she both did and did not want to know. “Did Pietro suffer?”

Even though he was outside of her, because of the siblings' closeness and the fact their powers came partially from the same source, Stephanie could see the past flash before her. Her brain was screaming at her not to answer, not wanting to hurt her, but the words came out unbidden. “Physically, yes, he did. The bullets pierced through his flesh as he protected Clint and the child. Emotionally, however, in his last moments, he was happy for the first time in years. Being able to use his life to protect others fulfilled him in a way that he could not as long as HYDRA had a hold on him.” She offered a small smile. “His last thoughts were of you, Wanda, and how proud he was to have you as a sister.”

Ripping her hands from Stephanie’s, tears streamed down Wanda’s face as she raced back over to Vision, falling into his arms. Shuri sat back down again, watching as it took longer for Stephanie to recover than it had the previous times. After several minutes, Bucky came over and crouched down in front of her, laying his hands on her thighs. “Is she okay?” he asked.

“You can ask me,” Stephanie moaned, the pounding in her head worse than before.

“Doll…”

“I’m not an invalid, no matter how bad I hurt.” Cracking open her eyes, she lifted a hand and cupped his cheek. “I should be asking if Wanda is okay. I didn’t want to tell her about Pietro, but…”

“The words just came without you being able to control them,” Shuri offered. When they both looked at her, she clarified, “The oracles of old would go into a trance-like state, unable to control what they said. It led to a lot of anger and hatred, not to mention deaths.”

“But Wanda…”

“Will be fine, doll.” Standing, he forced Stephanie to stand and sat in the chair, setting her on his lap and wrapping his arms around her. “You’re exhausted. Close your eyes, take a nap. It’s still several hours to New York.”

Lifting her head, she pressed a kiss to his cheek, then closed her eyes and laid her head against his shoulder. Within seconds her breathing evened out and she was asleep. Bucky rubbed her back, waiting until she was in a deep enough sleep that she wouldn’t wake up. Without any heat, he asked, “Why did you let her do so many?”

“Do you really think I could have controlled her?” Shuri laughed lightly when Bucky shook his head and sighed. “She is strong and stubborn. She would have to be, to come here and be good enough for you.”

“It’s the other way around.” He looked down at the sleeping women in his arms, heart filling with love. “It’s me who needs to be good enough for her.”

\----------

“If she sleeps much longer, she won’t sleep tonight,” Wanda said, looking down at the woman sleeping in Bucky’s arms. She still felt raw after what she had learned about Pietro but didn’t hold that against Stephanie. It wasn’t her fault she was one of the fabled oracles, it was simply a circumstance of her birth. As Bucky stared down at her, a soft look on his face, she tried again, “I know you care about her, anyone can see that, but…”

“I’ll wake her up,” he murmured. Lifting his flesh hand, he trailed a finger down her cheek. “God, she’s so beautiful.”

“You really like her, don’t you?”

Lifting his head, Bucky turned his attention to the redhead with her hand on his shoulder. “It’s funny, the first time I felt her presence was when I was… him. She calmed me, even back then when I didn’t know who I was. God, Wanda, the more she came to me… I could feel her emotions, sense how she felt. I honestly thought I would be alone forever, the ghost of her being the only thing that made me feel.” He noticed Stephanie starting to stir and lowered his voice. “I love her, Wanda. And don’t say it’s too soon because…”

“Bucky, if you love her, it doesn’t matter how long it took for you to fall. That doesn’t make it any less true.”

Stephanie stirred a little more, eyes fluttering open. “What’s with all the talking?” she moaned, lifting a hand to rub her eyes. Everything ached and she was exhausted, but at least she’d slept a little bit, even if it felt like she had just closed her eyes. “Head hurts.” Wanda walked away and the lights lowered, providing some relief. “So tired, Bucky.”

“I know, doll.” He cupped her cheek then pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “You’ve been asleep for three hours. We’ve only got an hour or so until we land in New York. If you sleep too long, you might not sleep tonight.”

“Feel like I could sleep for a week.”

“Why did you push so hard?” He knew that she wanted to learn, but he couldn’t understand why she would force herself to keep going when it would end with her in pain. “You could have stopped after Vision. Why did you…”

“I need to be able to control this.” Climbing off his lap, she swayed slightly, hand pressed against her forehead trying to control the overwhelming fatigue. When Bucky’s arm wrapped around her waist, she leaned against his chest and sighed. “I can touch you without visions. All I want is to get rid of this, be normal, something I haven’t been in nearly twenty years.”

Rubbing her back, Bucky had to swallow back the sudden sadness. Taking a deep breath, he tried to keep his voice calm. “Doll, if you didn’t have these powers, you wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t get to hold you, to touch you, to love you.” Placing a finger under her chin, he tilted her face up. “Why don’t you sit with Shuri, talk about oracles until we land. We have a lot of work to do starting tomorrow.”

“Fine,” she groaned. Standing on her toes, she pressed a kiss to his lips then sat back down in her chair. “Send her over.” After a couple of minutes, Shuri sank into the chair opposite her, crossing her legs underneath her butt. “I’m ready to learn more about oracles.”

Shuri laughed and patted the book on her lap. “Came prepared. What do you want to know?”

“How did we get our powers?”

“Do you want the scientific explanation that is most likely? Or, do you want to hear the myth?”

“I’m pretty sure I can guess the scientific explanation.” Stephanie smiled, then cringed when she felt a sharp pain behind her eyes. “I’d rather hear the truth.”

“Truth?”

Rubbing her eyes to try and diminish the ache, she chuckled lightly. “Science can tell you about mutations and genes, give you explanations for the unexplainable. They did come up with a way to create super soldiers, so explaining how oracles are created is not outside the realm of possibility. But in every story, there is a hint of truth of how the change came to be.”

“Alright.” Shuri opened the book to the page with the image of the story, even though she knew the story by heart. “Legend tells of a young god that came down to Greece, walking the streets of Delphi when he came upon a young beautiful girl selling bread. This girl looked like every other in the city - sun-kissed skin, long flowing brown locks, a smile that could stop an army - but her eyes sparkled with a fierceness that none could match.”

Stephanie opened her eyes and leaned forward, looking at the book. “Is that her?”

“Yes.” She turned the book and showed her the image. The girl was beautiful, looking very much like Stephanie, but the most interesting part of the image was the image of the god. It was blurry, almost as if the painter couldn’t capture it, but you could still see the long black hair and eyes the color of the sea. “The young god was taken with the girl, coming to her every day to buy a roll stuffed with lamb and feta. After three weeks, the young girl asked him why he came to her and he answered, 'love.' She was shocked, unable to believe what he was saying. But…”

“Please don’t tell me he…”

“Let me finish,” Shuri admonished. When Stephanie sat back in the chair and gestured for her to continue, she said, “The young god begged and pleaded with her for another three weeks, coming every day to her stall, asking her to give him a chance. Finally, she walked up to him and cupped his cheek. His charm and perseverance won him the girl. But before they could consummate their newfound relationship, another god appeared, an angry woman. She accused the god of cheating on her, of throwing away her love and turned to the woman, cursing her, and all her descendants, with never being able to touch another without overwhelming pain caused by an ability to delve deep into the psyche of others.”

“God…” Her pain all but forgotten, Stephanie leaned forward. “What happened?”

“When the goddess left, the young god turned to her, tears in his eyes. He couldn’t undo what the other had done but he could lessen it. When she touched someone she would be able to see everything about them - past, present, future - and even though it would hurt, with practice she could control how and when she saw them. As for her descendants, he couldn’t change the fact that they too would be forced to live with the visions but he made it so they would live normal lives until their thirteenth birthday.”

“Essence of truth,” she murmured, rubbing her eyes. The plane hit the ground, causing her to jostle in the chair. “Who were the gods?”

“That is where the legends differ, depending on which country is telling the tale. In Greece, it was Zeus and Hera; Scandinavia, Odin and Frigga; and in Wakanda, Ptah and Bast.”

“Is there any way to know which is true?”

Shuri shrugged and closed the book as the plane stopped moving and the engine shut off. “In the end, I do not believe it matters. What does is the fact that the young god loved a human girl, and even though his wife found out and cursed her with something unspeakable, he turned it into something that could be used for good.” Handing Stephanie the book, she stood and stretched. “I know this is all new and scary, but the stories don’t talk about the pain, they talk about all the good the oracles have done over the years. Keep the book, read it, learn your history. In time, you’ll be able to do these things without pain.”

“How old are you?” Stephanie asked incredulously, unable to believe that the young girl in front of her was so mature.

“Seventeen.” Shrugging, she looked over at Bucky who was waiting patiently to talk to Stephanie. “I’m going to talk to Okoye, see if I can convince her to let me come with you guys so I can meet Fury.”

As she flounced off, Bucky crouched down in front of her. “Feeling better?”

“A little.” Lifting her hand, she cupped his scruffy cheek. “I still can’t believe I’m here.” 

“Believe it, doll.” Standing, he offered her his flesh hand, pulling her out of the chair. “I’m just going to say this now, no sex tonight. You’re exhausted and…”

“Bucky, I’m too tired to even think about sex,” she laughed, leaning against his chest. A big yawn escaped, jaw cracking with the force of it. “Tomorrow is going to suck, I need my beauty sleep. But you better stay with me. I want to spend the night in your arms.”

“Doll, wild horses couldn’t drag me away.”


	19. SHIELD Remnants

2018

Stirring, Stephanie rolled onto her back, a little sad to not wake up in Bucky’s arms. Looking at the alarm clock, she was surprised to see how late it was. Late enough that breakfast was probably closed already, but the headache that persisted from the previous day killed any appetite she would normally have. Sitting up in bed, she stretched from side to side, smiling when the door opened and Bucky walked in holding a cup of what smelled like hot chocolate and a banana.

“Mornin’, doll.” Handing her both, he kicked off his shoes and sat down next to her. “Eat up. Vision contacted Fury, we’re meeting with them in an hour.”

“An hour?!?!” Setting the cup and banana down, she sprung out of bed and went over to her bag. “That’s not enough time to get ready. Fuck, what do I wear? I want.. no, I need Fury to listen to me.”

Pushing off the bed, he ambled over, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. “Doll, Fury will listen to you, he has to.”

“You don’t even know what’s coming,” she murmured.

“You’ll tell me when you’re ready.” Pressing a kiss to her shoulder, he hugged her tighter, trying to offer comfort. “I know you wouldn’t give up everything just for me, no matter how you feel. Shuri told me how Loki reacted when you talked to him. Just from that alone, I can tell whatever is coming must be bad.”

Laying her hands on his arms, she sighed. “How do I convince him?”

“Same way you convinced T’Challa and Loki.”

“I’m still not good enough with my powers. What if I try and fail? What if I get too tired?” Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths, trying to stop the rising panic. “I’m still so tired from yesterday and my head is killing me.”

Turning her in his arms, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Doll, I have faith you’ll know what to say when the time comes. Maybe tell him something only he would know.”

“I’ve never had any visions of him.”

“Have you seen any visions of the others where he was in them?”

“No…” Her voice trailed off and she pulled back, a grin lighting up her face. “Yes!” Standing on her toes, she pressed a loud kiss to his lips. “You’re a genius!”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Bucky laughed, pulling out of her arms and heading over to his bag to get clothes out. “It was just an idea. Now, eat the banana and drink your hot chocolate. Food will help with the tiredness and the headache.”

\----------

In the hotel lobby, Stephanie walked out of the elevator to see all four of the others waiting for them. “Is everyone coming?” she murmured.

“Vision knows where the remnants of SHIELD are, Wanda insists on staying with him and I don’t blame her, and I want you to be the one to tell Shuri she can’t come. She’s more excited for this excursion than she was to come to New York” Laying his flesh hand on her back, his metal arm was back in the sling, he rubbed gently. “It should be relatively safe, and since there is a lot she won’t be allowed to do, we should let her.”

One look at the excitement on the teenager's face, Stephanie sighed, shaking her head side to side as she chuckled. “Yeah, I’m not going to disappoint her, I guess we’ll have a full group. Hopefully, Fury doesn’t care if his super-secret hideout gets overrun by people.”

As they neared the group, Vision approached them. “I have informed Director Fury that we are on our way, as well as telling him the purpose for our visit, that we seek Captain Rogers, Miss Romanoff, and Sergeant Wilson.” He looked at Stephanie. “I hope I was not out of bounds for doing so.”

“No, it’s fine. Probably better that he knows we’re looking for them before we get there.” As we neared the rest of the group, Stephanie made sure to give the others a big smile. “Alright, are we ready to go?”

Okoye raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Fury sent a car for us.” Glancing down at her phone, she turned to Shuri. “Princess, are you sure you want to come?”

Before Shuri could even say anything, a tall brunette in jeans and a New York Yankees shirt and hat walked over to the group, obviously trying to be inconspicuous. I just looked at Bucky who had a grin on his face. The woman tipped her head. “Morning, all.”

“Hill, good to see you.” Bucky moved around Stephanie so he could shake her hand. “Glad to see Fury sent you and not some random underling.”

“There’s only three of us right now, Barnes,” she intoned, voice a near-perfect monotone. Her gaze looked at each person before stopping on Stephanie. Holding out her hand, she introduced herself. “Maria Hill.”

Looking down at Maria’s hand, Stephanie took a deep breath and shook it, closing her eyes as she felt the visions creeping up. Yanking her hand out of the other woman’s, she stuck them in her pockets and tried not to hyperventilate. Bucky placed a protective arm around her. “Sorry, Hill, it’s a long story, one you’ll get to hear when we explain it to Fury. This is Stephanie Lee, she’s the reason we’re here in New York and the reason we needed to find Steve and the others.”

Maria looked at the woman shaking against Bucky, not seeing what was so special about her. But instead of arguing, she did exactly what Fury asked of her. “Come on, let’s get going.”

\----------

The twenty minute drive to the center of town gave Stephanie enough time to calm down, even though the headache from the morning was worse. Shuri, Okoye, and Vision had taken the back of the van, leaving Wanda in the front seat with Bucky and her in the center. She could see Maria looking in the rearview mirror at her every once in a while, but it wasn’t until they were almost there that she felt well enough to say anything. “Sorry about earlier. I… I sometimes get overwhelmed when I meet new people.” It was the only lie she could come up with that wasn’t completely untrue.

Shuri leaned forward, inquiring softly, “Did you have visions?”

Maria pulled into an underground parking lot, stopping the car near a door, and turned. “Visions?”

“It’s a long story,” Bucky interrupted, cutting off anything else she might say.

“Fine,” she acceded, getting out of the van.

When it was just the two of the left, Bucky turned to face Stephanie, cupping her cheek with his flesh hand. “Doll, you okay?”

“Yeah.” Leaning forward, she pressed a soft kiss to his lips, taking comfort in his presence. “I was hoping I could shake her hand without visions or going all oracle on her, but when her skin touched mine I could feel them coming, which is why I pulled away so quickly.”

“I know you think you couldn’t control it, but when you touched Shuri you collapsed to the floor.” At Stephanie’s shocked look, he chuckled. “She told me. When Loki touched you, you went oracle on him. But, when you touched Maria, you pulled away before being inundated.”

Shuri poked her head into the van door, giving an apologetic wince. “We gotta get going, Fury’s expecting us.”

Climbing out of the van, Bucky intertwined his fingers with Stephanie’s as they walked through the door that led down a sterile hallway. They passed a few rooms that were completely empty, entering a large room at the end that had a big conference table with several chairs, a few desks off to one side, and another door that was shut. Fury sat in one of the big chairs around the table, hands clasped over his stomach.

After everyone sat down, Fury leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “So, Vision said you guys were looking for Steve. Why?”

All eyes turned to Stephanie who sighed. “Alright, so I guess I’ll explain.” Taking a deep breath, she tried to think of how to start. In the end, she just began with the most important part. “First, my name’s Stephanie Lee. I know you have no idea who I am, but since I’m the one with the future knowledge… There’s a fight coming in a few months. An alien - I don’t know how else to explain him - is coming to get the time and mind stones in order to complete a gauntlet that will let him wipe out half of existence.”

Bucky turned to her, eyes wide. “What the fuck?”

Groaning, she rubbed at her eyes. “I should have told you before,” she muttered. Moving her hand, she stared at Fury. “Look, I don’t have a good way to explain this, other than a lot of people die. It’s bad. When the Asgardians get here, Loki can confirm what I’m telling you about Thanos. But until then, I need to find the rest of the team and get them back together. I’d also like it if you could get Carol here. She’s quite probably the strongest out of everyone and we’ll need her.”

“What the fuck?” This time Fury said it, eyeing her up and down. “Why should I believe anything you say?”

“Now’s where you use your powers,” Shuri interjected, trying to be helpful.

But with her headache and the close call with Maria, Stephanie didn’t have the energy to try with him. “I have a better idea. How about I tell you something that only you and Natasha would know about?”

“And how do I know Natasha didn’t tell you?”

“I guess you don’t, you just have to trust that I’ve never met her before. I know that is hard to do, but I swear to you, I’ve never met Natasha Romanoff, nor any of the rest of the team, before a few days ago when I showed up in Wakanda. These three are the only ones I’ve had any interactions with.” When he made a motion for her to continue, she nodded. “You sent Clint to stop her, put her down. But when he brought her back, saying she’d be more help than a hindrance, you were shocked at how young she was. I believe at the time she was around seventeen. You asked to speak to her alone and gave her a very similar speech to the one you gave Tony and Steve on the helicarrier after the attack. Except for this time, you didn’t have bloody Captain America trading cards to guilt someone into listening.”

“How…”

“She’s an oracle,” Shuri said, trying again to be helpful. 

“Visions, Fury. I have visions.” Stephanie reached out to grasp Bucky’s hand, needing his strength. “I don’t remember the exact wording, but it went something like this. ‘I believe in heroes, in people who can do extraordinary things. I believe that we are more than what we were, that we can change and be better. Natalia Romanova, Black Widow, assassin for the KGB, I believe you can do better.’ Then she asked what you would do to her. You responded with, ‘I have no desire to kill or lock up a child. It is my hope that you will join us, add your strength to ours, so when the inexplicable happens, we have a defense for it. If you decide that is something you do not want to partake in, we will have no choice but to extradite you back to Russia, even though I know exactly how they will treat you. I do not  _ want  _ to send you back, I’ve seen how they treat potential defectors, but I will have no choice.’ You then went on to explain what the Avenger initiative was and how Clint was a part of it. But I think what convinced her was this part. ‘A hero is not a person who is stronger or faster than others, bullet resistant, or even superhuman. A hero is someone who is none of those things and yet still does what is right, simply because it is. A hero is someone, who under any other circumstance would hide under their bed, but they fight anyway, knowing that even if they die someone else will be saved.’”

Fury leaned back in his chair, a contemplative look on his face. “Actually, I think it was when I told her she’d still get to kill people that she decided to stay.” At that moment, an orange cat jumped up onto his lap, meowing loudly. He scratched it’s head, before saying, “Knowing that does not tell me why I should believe you about this Thanos.”

The cat jumped off Fury’s lap and wandered over to Stephanie and Bucky, hissing as it passed him. When the cat stopped in front of Stephanie, it sat down and cocked it’s head at her, almost as if trying to figure her out. Stephanie looked down at the animal, wondering why it looked so familiar. “Can I pet it?”

“It’s your funeral,” Fury laughed. “Goose isn’t really a people… cat. He’s more of a… well, just be careful.”

Stephanie let go of Bucky’s hand and the cat jumped up in her lap, placing both front paws on her chest and chirping at her. When she touched his back, a vision flashed through her mind of a spaceship and a fight. She saw aliens, the Tesseract, a lunch pail, Carol, and when Fury was on the ship holding him and Goose scratched his eye. Then something else flashed before her that she didn’t quite understand. It almost looked as if an Eldritch being was living inside of the cat as tentacles erupted from its mouth as he swallowed the Tesseract.

When she came to, everyone was staring at her with a mix of shocked and worried expressions. The headache had multiplied into the beginnings of a migraine and exhaustion hit her like a freight truck. Brushing her fingers back over the orange fur, she sighed happily when no more visions were forthcoming.

“What the fuck was that?” Fury asked.

“I tried to tell you, she’s an oracle.” Shuri laughed lightly, glad that they’d let her come. Staying in the hotel wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining. “She just had a vision.” Her voice lowered, becoming more contemplative. “Although, I’m not sure why she had one when touching the cat.”

The cat chirped at her again and she looked into his green eyes, seeing the intelligence behind them. “Did you give me that vision, Goose?” As she said his name, it almost looked as if he smiled and a tiny bit of tentacle slipped out like a tongue. Goose stood higher on her chest, nuzzling against her cheek and she got another flash of a vision, this one much simpler, it was just of a young pre-serum Steve. “Wait, I thought I recognized you!”

“Doll?” Bucky muttered.

“This is Goose!”

“Got that part, doll.” 

“No, you don’t understand.” Stephanie kept petting his back as he sank down onto her lap, curling up in a ball and purring loudly. “Remember after Steve’s mother died, you guys were walking home and he found that little orange kitten in an alley and insisted on bringing him home with you guys? Then, he came up with the name Goose for it?” When Bucky’s eyes widened, she gestured at the cat. “This is him.”

“Doll, the only reason I’m alive is the serum and cryogenic storage.” Glancing down at the cat, he raised an eyebrow. “That’s a cat. No way in hell…”

“It’s not a cat,” she denied.

Fury held up a hand. “Alright, I believe you, Miss Lee.” He spared a glance at Bucky. “Miss Lee is correct, Goose isn’t a cat, he’s a Flerken.”

“A what now?” Bucky looked down at the very normal-looking cat who was now curled on its back getting Stephanie to rub his stomach.

“A Flerken. Look, it doesn’t matter what it is, but since I just witnessed Goose taking to someone other than me for the first time in twenty-three years, I have to believe she is special. Plus, I saw her eyes glow, that has to mean something.”

“Oracle,” Shuri repeated, intending to say more until Okoye glared at her.

“When I touch someone, I get visions of their past or future,” Stephanie explained. “I never expected it to happen with an animal, but I’m guessing it’s because Goose is not a simple animal, but something more evolved. Of course, I think he actually directed the vision because I don’t normally have a choice as to what I see.” Looking down, a soft smile came over her face as she looked at the happy feline. “I saw a lot, but the thing I know you have never told another person - because no one would believe you - is that Goose swallowed the Tesseract.”

“When do you need me to call Carol?” Her eyes widened and he chuckled. “There are only two people that know about that, me and Carol. Since she has been off-world since 1995, and I know I didn’t tell you, I’m taking what you say at face value.” Pulling out his phone, he sent off a text, glancing down at it when it dinged. “Wilson will meet you at the Captain America exhibit at eleven-hundred hours tomorrow. I would suggest only you and Bucky go. Too many people could draw unwanted attention.” He whistled and Goose jumped off her lap, heading back over to Fury. “It will take a few weeks for Carol to get here, I’m hoping that won’t be too late.”

Since everyone else started standing, Stephanie did as well. “We still have a few months, plenty of time for the Asgardians and Carol to get here, not to mention putting together a defensive plan.” She gave Fury a grateful smile. “Thanks for listening, and for believing.”

Fury shook his head. “I wouldn’t have believed you, Miss Lee. Goose is what convinced me, you should be thanking him.” 


End file.
